Mass and density of asteroids (4) Vesta and (11) Parthenope

Abstract

As mentioned in a previous paper (Viateau & Rapaport [CITE]), the orbit of asteroid (17) Thetis is strongly perturbed by two large minor planets, (4) Vesta and (11) Parthenope. These strong gravitational perturbations enabled us to determine both the mass of Vesta and the mass of Parthenope. We also independently derived the mass of Vesta from observations of (197) Arete. The weighted mean of the two results gives the value (solar mass) for the mass of Vesta, and its derived mean density is () g/cm3. For (11) Parthenope, the values and g/cm3 were obtained, respectively for its mass and its mean density.