Author(s)

Isao Satō^1*, Hiromi Hamanowa², Hiroyuki Tomioka³, Sadaharu Uehara⁴

¹Nihon University, Sakata, Yamagata, Japan.
²Hamanowa Astronomical Observatory, Motomiya, Fukushima, Japan.
³Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan.
⁴KEK, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Some evidences of possible duplicities of five asteroids are presented. A satellite of (279) Thule was convincingly detected by a stellar occultation on 2008 April 3 by Thule and also from follow-up light curve observations. The orbital period of the satellite is 3.007 or 6.014 days, and the minimum diameter is estimated to be 52 km. A satellite of (324) Bamberga was detected by secondary drops of the light curve in 2007. The rotation period of the primary is 1.22625 days, and the revolution period of the secondary is 3.00 or 6.00 days. Presumed contact duplicity of the main body of the L4 Trojan (624) Hektor was detected by a stellar occultation by Hektor on 2008 January 24. A possible satellite of (657) Gunl?d was suggested from a secondary occultation by Gunl?d on 2008 November 29. The minimum of the diameter is 7 km. A possible satellite of (739) Mandeville was suggested by stellar occultation observations on 1980 December 10.

Asteroid, Occultation, Light Curve, Satellite, Binary

Satō, I. , Hamanowa, H. , Tomioka, H. and Uehara, S. (2015) Possible Duplicities of Five Asteroids. International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 5, 193-207. doi: 10.4236/ijaa.2015.53024.