Search of asteroid-asteroid encounters

L.A. MAMMANA AND R.B. ORELLANA

Tonantzintla, México

Congreso; IX Reunión Regional Latinoamericana de Astronomía.; 1998

UNAM

Earlier studies about asteroids did not consider mutual interactions since they asume a negligible asteroid mass. In 1966 Hertz took into account for the first time the gravitational effects produced by an asteroid on another for mass determination. This gravitational action becomes relevant for enough effective encounters. The most efficient gravitational interaction is that produced in a large time interval and for small distances.For each particular caseful it is relevant to perform a care analysis in order to determinate the feasibility in the mass determination and improved orbital elements.In the present paper we performed a search of asteroid-asteroid encounters occured in the twenty century for the first 3000 numbered asteroids. Of all encounters we have selected only those asteroid pairs in which one of the asteroids has a diameter larger tan 200 km and the other one (the smaller) an observational interval of at least ten years.