Astrometric and Photometric Investigations of 2009 WZ104 Near Earth Asteroid

TL;DR

This study presents astrometric and photometric observations of the potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid 2009 WZ104, aiming to refine its orbit, classify its type, and analyze its physical and rotational properties.

Contribution

It provides detailed observational data and analysis of 2009 WZ104, including orbit refinement, taxonomic classification, and physical parameter estimation, which were not previously available.

Findings

Asteroid classified as Aten group NEA.

Refined orbit with minimal intersection distance of 0.0304 a.e.

Determined physical parameters and rotation dynamics.

Abstract

The 2009 WZ104 asteroid was discovered with 68-cm Schmidt Catalina Sky Survey telescope of Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona (USA) in 25 of November 2009. The observations of the new object were confirmed with 60-cm reflector of Schiaparelli observatory (Italy) and 35-cm Schmidt - Cassegrain telescope of Alter Saltzberg observatory (Vienna, Austria). The asteroid was attributed as potentially hazardous near Earth asteroid. The minimal orbit intersection distance is 0.0304 a.e. The observations of the 2009 WZ104 asteroid were continued with MTM-500M 50-cm meniscus telescope and ZA-320M 32-cm mirror astrograph of Pulkovo observatory (Russia) since late 2009. The observations were made in the framework of NEOs investigation program. The following tasks were established for the investigation: to get astrometric and photometric (in BVRI bands) series of observations, to improve the asteroid orbit on the base of the observational data, to determine its taxonomic class and absolute magnitude, to investigate the dynamics of its rotation, to estimate its physical parameters. The asteroid was attributed to Aten group among NEAs.