Prevalence of Fast Rotators Among Small Near‑Earth Asteroids: An Ongoing Survey from the Two‑Meter Twin Telescope facility

Alarcon, Miguel R.; Licandro, Javier; Serra-Ricart, Miquel
Referencia bibliográfica

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025 (EPSC-DPS2025

Fecha de publicación:
9
2025
Número de autores
3
Número de autores del IAC
3
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) offer unique laboratories for probing the internal structure and cohesion of small bodies. Although most asteroids spin more slowly than the so‑called "cohesionless spin barrier" (a ∼2.2 h rotation period above which a rubble pile would disrupt), a growing handful of NEAs exhibit much shorter periods, calling into question our understanding of their mechanical strength and aggregate structure.Measuring sub‑barrier spin rates is challenging: wide‑field surveys rarely provide the continuous, high‑cadence photometry needed to resolve rapid light‑curve variations over several hours. Dedicated follow‑up with robotic telescopes is therefore essential to capture the dense temporal sampling required to detect and characterize fast rotators.Here we report on an ongoing survey targeting NEAs with absolute magnitude H > 22.5, carried out with four new robotic instruments at Teide Observatory, Tenerife: two 0.8 m telescopes (TTT‑1/2), a 1 m wide‑field telescope (TST; 4.1 deg2 FOV), and a 2 m telescope (TTT‑3). All are equipped with high‑sensitivity sCMOS cameras optimized for rapid, low‑noise photometry. For the 2 m telescope, individual observing blocks are constrained to under 40 minutes, whereas on the 0.8 m telescopes we employ two‑hour blocks to secure adequate temporal coverage of fast rotators.To date we have observed over seventy NEAs within days of discovery, identifying more than 55 previously unreported fast rotators. Preliminary statistics indicate that 91 % of our sample with H > 24 rotate faster than the spin barrier, and every one of fourteen targets with H > 26 exhibits sub‑barrier spin periods—several completing a full rotation in under a minute. We also report at least five new non‑principal‑axis (tumbling) rotators, a substantial increase over the thirteen known to date. These results underscore both the prevalence of rapid spin states among the smallest NEAs and the power of dedicated, high‑cadence follow‑up in expanding our knowledge of their physical properties.Figure 1. Number of small NEAs observed versus absolute magnitude, color‑coded by spin rate relative to the 2.2 h cohesionless spin barrier: fast rotators in blue and slower rotators in gold. Short observing blocks (< 2 h per target) reduce our capacity to determine to low‑amplitude, not-fast‑spinning objects.Figure 2. Published rotation periods versus diameter for asteroids (LCDB, U > 2), with Near‑Earth Asteroids highlighted in gold. Our new measurements appear in blue, with non‑principal‑axis (tumbling) rotators in red.Figure 3. Lightcurve of 2025 EK4 over less than 25 minutes. This is one of the NEAs illustrating rapid, non‑principal‑axis rotation.