Spin vector and shape of (6070) Rheinland and their implications

TL;DR

This study determines the rotation state and shape of asteroid Rheinland, confirming its retrograde rotation, and discusses implications for its origin and orbital evolution within the asteroid pair system.

Contribution

It provides the first direct determination of Rheinland's rotation state and shape using lightcurve inversion, confirming its retrograde rotation and refining its physical parameters.

Findings

Rheinland has a retrograde rotation with obliquity >= 140°.

Shape analysis reveals a near-planar edge in Rheinland.

Updated absolute magnitude of Rheinland is H=14.17, larger than previous estimates.

Abstract

Main belt asteroids (6070) Rheinland and (54827) 2001NQ8 belong to a small population of couples of bodies which reside on very similar heliocentric orbits. Vokrouhlicky & Nesvorny (2008, AJ 136, 280) promoted a term "asteroid pairs", pointing out their common origin within the past tens to hundreds of ky. Previous attempts to reconstruct the initial configuration of Rheinland and 2001NQ8 at the time of their separation have led to the prediction that Rheinland's rotation should be retrograde. Here we report extensive photometric observations of this asteroid and use the lightcurve inversion technique to directly determine its rotation state and shape. We confirm the retrograde sense of rotation of Rheinland, with obliquity value constrained to be >= 140 deg. The ecliptic longitude of the pole position is not well constrained as yet. The asymmetric behavior of Rheinland's lightcurve reflects a sharp, near-planar edge in our convex shape representation of this asteroid. Our calibrated observations in the red filter also allow us to determine $H_R = 13.68\pm 0.05$ and $G = 0.31\pm 0.05$ values of the H-G system. With the characteristic color index $V-R = 0.49\pm 0.05$ for the S-type asteroids, we thus obtain $H = 14.17\pm 0.07$ for the absolute magnitude of (6070) Rheinland. This a significantly larger value than previously obtained from analysis of the astrometric survey observations. We next use the obliquity constraint for Rheinland to eliminate some degree of uncertainty in the past propagation of its orbit. This is because the sign of the past secular change of its semimajor axis due to the Yarkovsky effect is now constrained. Determination of the rotation state of the secondary component, asteroid (54827) 2001NQ8, is the key element in further constraining the age of the pair and its formation process.