Occultation - Occultations By Asteroids

Occultations By Asteroids

An asteroid occultation occurs when an asteroid (also known as a minor planet) passes in front of a star (occults a star), temporarily blocking its light (as seen from Earth). Several events occur nearly every day over the world. From any particular place such events occur almost every night, although most require a telescope to see. Professionals and amateurs around the globe are collaborating over the Internet to exchange their observation for a joint analysis.

Asteroid occultations are useful for measuring the size and position of asteroids much more precisely than can be done by any other means. A cross-sectional profile of the shape of an asteroid can even be determined if a number of observers at different, nearby, locations observe the occultation. For example, on March 12, 2009 there were 8 minor planet occulations, including (85) Io, (247) Eukrate, (1585) Union, (201) Penelope, (70) Panopaea, (980) Anacostia, (2448) Sholokhov, (1746) Brouwer, and (191) Kolga. Any one of these would be expected to occult at a time and place on the globe, at a certain magnitude, and with a certain star.

For example, according to the 1998 European Asteroidal Occultation Results from Euraster, 39 Laetitia was observed by over 38 observatories in one occultation on March 3, 1998, which resulted in many chords being determined.

Occultations have produced outlines of many asteroids. Some notable ones include:

Occultations have also been used to estimate the diameter of trans-Neptunian objects such as (55636) 2002 TX300, 28978 Ixion, and 20000 Varuna. Preliminary results of a 6 November 2010 occultation by the dwarf planet Eris of a magnitude 17 star in the constellation of Cetus placed an upper limit on Eris's diameter of 2320 km, making it almost the same size as Pluto. Due to their slower movement through the night sky, occultations by TNOs are far less common than by asteroids in the main-belt.