Multi‐color photometric observations of three asteroids in the vicinity of Vesta family

Abstract

AbstractThe asteroid (4) Vesta, Vesta dynamic family members and asteroids residing in their vicinity, as the important informational carriers, can supply us with abundant information on the evolution of the inner solar system, such as the collision evolution process and the solar irradiation influence on the changes of the inner belt asteroidal orbits and their spin states. There are significant prospects for investigating the spin and color properties of these asteroids through multi‐color photometric observations. We developed a long‐term observational research plan, and have carried out the first implementation of this plan by using two telescopes who are equipped with the three‐channel system and the SDSS filters. In this paper, we report the corresponding observational results and the determinations of spin pole orientations for three asteroids (556) Phyllis, (620) Drakonia, and (1152) Pawona who reside in the vicinity of Vesta family, and meanwhile estimate the color indexes of Phyllis and Pawona.