Mass and density of asteroids (4) Vesta and (11) Parthenope

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 370, Number 2, May I 2001


Page(s)		602 - 609
Section		The solar system
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010222

A&A 370, 602-609 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20010222

Mass and density of asteroids (4) Vesta and (11) Parthenope

B. Viateau and M. Rapaport

Observatoire de Bordeaux, UMR 5804, CNRS, BP 89, 33270 Floirac, France

(Received 29 August 2000 / Accepted 7 February 2001)

Abstract
As mentioned in a previous paper (Viateau & Rapaport 1997), the orbit of asteroid (17) Thetis is strongly perturbed by two large minor planets, (4) Vesta and (11) Parthenope. These strong gravitational perturbations enabled us to determine both the mass of Vesta and the mass of Parthenope. We also independently derived the mass of Vesta from observations of (197) Arete. The weighted mean of the two results gives the value $(1.306\pm 0.016) 10^{-10}$ $M_{\odot}$ (solar mass) for the mass of Vesta, and its derived mean density is ( $3.3\pm 0.5$ ) g/cm³. For (11) Parthenope, the values $(2.56\pm 0.07) 10^{-12}$ $M_{\odot}$ and $(2.3\pm 0.2)$ g/cm³ were obtained, respectively for its mass and its mean density.

Key words: minor planets, asteroids -- astrometry -- ephe merides

Offprint request: M. Rapaport, rapaport@observ.u-bordeaux.fr

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