Near-Earth Asteroid Elongations from Radar Observations


Last modified: 2006 September 18

Pole-on elongations estimated from convex hulls, three-dimensional shape reconstructions, or
bandwidth extrema from observations that do not permit hull or shape inversions due to 
insufficient SNR.  For the non-principal axis rotator Toutatis, we list the ratio of the long 
to the intermediate axis from its shape model.  For objects described in more than one
paper, the most recent estimate of the elongation is cited (e.g., Castalia and Geographos).

  		 Pole-on     Inversion
  Asteroid	 elongation    method	           Reference
  --------	 ----------  ---------	           ---------
  1620 Geographos  2.5       3-D model	           Hudson and Ostro 1999
 11066 Sigurd      2.5       bandwidth extrema     Benner et al. 2004 
  4179 Toutatis	   2.4	     3-D model		   Hudson and Ostro 1995
   433 Eros	   2.2	     3-D, hull	           Mitchell et al. 1998, Ostro et al. 1990b
  1627 Ivar	   2.1	     hull		   Ostro et al. 1990a
  2063 Bacchus	   2.1	     3-D model		   Benner et al. 1999b
 25143 Itokawa     1.9       3-D model             Ostro et al., 2004, 2005
       2005 CR37   1.9       bandwidth extrema     Benner et al. 2006
  4183 Cuno        1.7       bandwidth extrema     Benner et al. 2001
  4769 Castalia	   1.6	     3-D model		   Hudson and Ostro 1994
  1685 Toro        1.5       ellipsoid fit         Ostro et al. 1983
  3103 Eger        1.5       bandwidth extrema     Benner et al. 1997
 10115 1992 SK     1.5       3-D model             Busch et al. 2006
  6178 1986 DA	   1.4	     hull		   Ostro et al. 1991
  6489 Golevka     1.4       3-D model             Hudson et al. 2000
  1862 Apollo      1.3       hull                  Ostro et al., 2002
  2100 Ra-Shalom   1.2       hull                  Shepard et al. 2000
  3908 Nyx         1.2       hull, 3-D             Benner et al. 2002b
  4197 1982 TA     1.2       hull                  * unpublished *
  7822 1991 CS	   1.2	     hull	 	   Benner et al. 1999a
 66391 1999 KW4    1.2       3-D model (secondary) Ostro et al, submitted
       1998 KY26   1.2       hull                  Ostro et al. 1999
       1999 JM8    1.2       bandwidth extrema     Benner et al., 2002a
       1999 RQ36   1.2       3-D model             Hudson et al. 2000
       1998 ML14   1.1       3-D model             Ostro et al. 2001
  1580 Betulia     1.1       3-D model             Magri et al, in press
100085 1992 UY4    1.1       bandwidth extremea    Benner et al, in preparation
 66391 1999 KW4    1.0       3-D model (primary)   Ostro et al, submitted
       2002 CE26   1.0       3-D model (primary)   Shepard et al., 2006

N = 29
Mean and rms dispersion = 1.53 +/- 0.47


  


MANY other data sets are available that should yield hulls and/or 3-D reconstructions.

REFERENCES
----------
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