 624 Hektor and its moon Skamandrios | |
| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | A. Kopff |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 10 February 1907 |
| Designations | |
| (624) Hektor | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhɛktər/[2] |
Named after | Hector(Greek mythology)[3] |
| 1907 XM; 1948 VD | |
| Jupiter trojan [1][4] · Hektor [5] Greeks  [6] | |
| Adjectives | Hektorean or Hektorian (both/hɛkˈtɔːriən/)[2] |
| Orbital characteristics [4] | |
| Epoch 23 March 2018 (JD 2458200.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 111.28yr (40,646 d) |
| Aphelion | 5.3824AU |
| Perihelion | 5.1319 AU |
| 5.2571 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0238 |
| 12.05 yr (4,403 d) | |
| 136.09° | |
| 0° 4m 54.48s / day | |
| Inclination | 18.166° |
| 342.79° | |
| 185.22° | |
| Knownsatellites | 1 |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.2752 AU |
| TJupiter | 2.8990 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 403 km × 201 km(derived)[7] 370 km × 195 km × 195 km[8] |
| 250±26 km[7] (if bilobe:256±12 km)[7] 225 km[4] 147±2 km[9] 227±15 km[10] 231±4 km[11] | |
| Mass | (7.9±1.4)×1018 kg[7] (9.95±0.12)×1018 kg[10] |
Meandensity | 1.0±0.3 g/cm3[7] 1.63±0.32 g/cm3[10] 2.43±0.35 g/cm3[12] |
| 6.9205 hours (0.28835 d)[7] | |
| 0.025[4] 0.034±0.001[11] 0.107±0.011[9] | |
| D(Tholen)[4] | |
| 13.79 to 15.26[citation needed] | |
| 7.20[9] · 7.3[4] · 7.49[11] | |
| 0.078" to 0.048"[citation needed] | |
624 Hektor/ˈhɛktər/ is the largestJupiter trojan and the namesake of theHektor family, with a highly elongated shape equivalent in volume to a sphere of approximately 225 to 250 kilometers diameter. It was discovered on 10 February 1907, by astronomerAugust Kopff atHeidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany, and named after the Trojan princeHector, from Greek mythology.[1][3] It has one small 12-kilometer sizedsatellite,Skamandrios, discovered in 2006.[7]
Hektor is aD-type asteroid, dark and reddish in colour. It lies in Jupiter's leadingLagrangian point,L4, called theGreek camp after one of the two sides in the legendaryTrojan War. Hektor is named after the Trojan heroHektor and is thus one of two trojan asteroids that is "misplaced" in the wrong camp (the other one being617 Patroclus in theTrojan camp).
Hektor is one of the most elongated bodies of its size in theSolar System, being approximately 403 km in its longest dimension, but averaging only around 201 km in its other dimensions, with a total volume equivalent to an approx 250 km diameter sphere, and an estimated mass of7.9×1018 kg (thus density of 1.0g/cm3). It is thought that Hektor might be acontact binary (two asteroids joined by gravitational attraction) like216 Kleopatra, composed of two more rounded lobes of 220 and 183 km mean diameters.[7]Hubble Space Telescope observations of Hektor in 1993 did not show an obviousbilobate shape because of a limitedangular resolution. On 17 July 2006, theKeck 10-meter-II-telescope and itslaser guide staradaptive optics (AO) system indicated a bilobate shape for Hektor,[13] which was reinforced by later studies that, together with multiple historical lightcurves, suggest a rotation period of 6.9205 hours.[7]
| Discovery[7] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Marchis et al. |
| Discovery date | 2006 July 16 |
| Designations | |
Designation | Hektor I |
| Pronunciation | /skəˈmændriəs/ |
Named after | Scamandrius |
| S/2006 (624) 1 | |
| Adjectives | Skamandrian |
| Orbital characteristics[7] | |
| 623.5±10 km | |
| Eccentricity | 0.31±0.03 |
| 2.9651±0.0003 days | |
| Inclination | 50.1°±1.1° (to primary) 166.2°±3.2° (in EQJ2000) |
| 170.7°±6.1° (in EQJ2000) | |
| 113.4°±1.4° (in EQJ2000) | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 12±3 km (assuming composition of primary) | |
A 10–15-km-diameter moon, namedSkamandrios, was detected orbiting 624 Hektor in 2006 with a semi-major axis of 623.5 km and an orbital period of 2.9651 days (71.162 hours).[14][7] It was confirmed with Keck observations in November 2011,[15] and was then named on 12 March 2017.[16] No mass estimate was provided, but the equivalent volume suggests an approximate mass of8.74×1014 kg if the two bodies are of the same density. Its orbit is highly inclined and eccentric, and it is likely that its rotation is chaotic. Marchis et al. (2014) speculate that it was ejected after a low-velocity collision produced the bilobed primary. The newly merged primary could have spun fast enough to be unstable and shed some mass.[7] The dynamics of Skamandrios can be modeled by the restrictedfour-body problem.[17]
Hektor is the first known trojan with a satellite companion and, so far, one of only four known binary trojan asteroids in theL4 group (the others being16974 Iphthime,3548 Eurybates, and15094 Polymele).617 Patroclus, another large trojan asteroid of theL5 group, consists of two almost equal-sized components.[13] Two other binary asteroids are known in the L5 group,(17365) 1978 VF11 and29314 Eurydamas.[18]
624 Hektor was in a 2003 study of asteroids using the HubbleFGS.[19] Asteroids studied include63 Ausonia,15 Eunomia,43 Ariadne,44 Nysa, and 624 Hektor.[19] It has since been revisited several times, particularly as a test of the upgraded resolution of the Keck Observatory's LGS Adaptive Optics system which allowed Earth-based observation of binary asteroids for the first time.[13][7] The asteroid has also been imaged by theNEOWISE andAKARI all-sky studies, which reported highly divergent size estimates of 147.4[9] and 231.0 kilometers,[11] respectively. This mostly arises from large differences in estimatedalbedo (approximately 0.107 for NEOWISE, and a much lower 0.034 for AKARI) rather than itsabsolute magnitude being measured only briefly at opposing extremes of a widely varying cycle such as thought to account for the uncertainty over the size of1173 Anchises (624 Hektor's own abs. mag. recorded as a relatively similar 7.20 and 7.49 by the two studies). It is, unusually, not included in the publishedIRAS results, and is therefore the largest Jupiter trojan to be omitted from that study.
