Carpe Umbram Is Barbara Duplicitous?

摘要

Thanks to a unique method that uses the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile, astronomers recently have been able to measure sizes of small asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Their observations suggest that asteroid 234 Barbara has a complex shape, best modelled as two bodies that may possibly be in contact (Figure 1). The International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) took up the quest to determine Barbaras true nature when it was learned that an extraordinarily good occultation opportunity would present itself on 2009 November 21 along a path that would cross northern Europe, Bermuda, and central Florida (Figure 2).