Time and phase resolved optical spectra of potentially hazardous asteroid 2014 JO25

Abstract

The asteroid 2014 JO25, considered to be "potentially hazardous" by the Minor Planet Center, was spectroscopically followed during its close-Earth encounter on 19th and 20th of April 2017. The spectra of the asteroid were taken with the low resolution spectrograph (LISA), mounted on the 1.2-m telescope at the Mount Abu Infrared Observatory, India. Coming from a region close to the Hungaria population of asteroids, this asteroid follows a comet-like orbit with a relatively high inclination and large eccentricity. Hence, we carried out optical spectroscopic observations of the asteroid to look for comet-like molecular emissions or outbursts. However, the asteroid showed a featureless spectrum, devoid of any comet-like features. The asteroid's light curve was analyzed using V band magnitudes derived from the spectra and the most likely solution for the rotation of the asteroid was obtained. The absolute magnitude H and the slope parameter G were determined for the asteroid in V filter band using the IAU accepted standard two parameter H-G model. A peculiar, rarely found result from these observations is its phase bluing trend. The relative B-V color index seems to decrease with increasing phase angle, which indicates a phase bluing trend. Such trends have seldom been reported in literature. However, phase reddening in asteroids is very common. The asymmetry parameter g and the single scattering albedo w were estimated for the asteroid by fitting the Hapke phase function to the observed data. The asteroid shows relatively large value for the single scattering albedo and a highly back scattering surface.