Physical and Mutual Orbit Characteristics of Near-Earth Binary Asteroid (163693) Atira

Abstract

We report physical and mutual orbit characteristics of near-Earth binary asteroid (163693) Atira. Using S-band (2380 MHz, 12.6 cm) radar observations from the Arecibo Observatory and several epochs of lightcurve observations from 2003 to 2019 with SHAPE modeling software, we determine the shape, size, rotational period, and mutual orbit of the primary and secondary components and the density of the primary component. We confirm the primary’s sidereal rotation period to be 3.398521 ± 0.000003 hr, and we find a likely spin axis orientation of ecliptic longitude and latitude (187°, −53°) ± 12°. We find the primary’s volume-equivalent diameter to be 4.92 ± 0.95 km and the secondary’s volume-equivalent diameter to be 0.80 ± 0.30 km. We find the primary component’s density to be 1.43 ± 0.87 g cm−3. We also find that the secondary has a semimajor axis of 7.8 ± 0.5 km and a sidereal orbital period of 15.577 ± 0.003 hr based on orbital calculations using delay and Doppler offsets between the primary and secondary and the timing of mutual events observed in lightcurve data. This work represents the first detailed analysis of the shape of an Atira-class asteroid.