[IAUC] CBET 1016: 20070802 : S/2007 (702) 1

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                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 1016
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
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S/2007 (702) 1
      P. Rojo, Universidad de Chile; and J. L. Margot, Cornell University,
report the discovery on July 26.3 UT of a satellite of (702) Alauda (V =
11.9) from adaptive-optics J-, H-, and K_s-band imaging with the ESO 8-m
Very Large Telescope UT4/YEPUN on Cerro Paranal, Chile.  The satellite was
observed at two epochs on each of two consecutive nights.  On July 26.265
UT, the companion was at a separation of 0".58 (projected separation about
900 km) in p.a. 20 deg.  The primary-to-secondary H-band flux ratio is about
1250, yielding a diameter ratio of about 35.  This is the first satellite
discovered to a large minor planet of type B in the SMASSII taxonomy (Bus
and Binzel 2002, Icarus 158, 146).  Alauda (a = 3.2 AU, e = 0.02, i = 21
deg) has been identified as the largest member of a dynamical family
(Foglia and Masi 2004, Minor Planet Bull. 41, 100; Gil-Hutton 2006, Icarus
183, 93).


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                         (C) Copyright 2007 CBAT
2007 August 2                    (CBET 1016)              Daniel W. E. Green