Ancient Asteroids - Observing campaign 2021

Ancient Asteroids is an international observing campaign that aims towards the

characterization of asteroids, which are members of the most ancient and dispersed collisional asteroid families in the Main Belt of our Solar System

The project was initiated in 2020 at the University of Athens Observatory (UOAO) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece by Dr. Kosmas Gazeas, in collaboration with the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (OCA) in Nice, France, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Astronomical Institute of the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, United States and the BSA Observatory in Savigliano, Italy.

The project will also contribute valuable information to the Minor Planet Physical Properties Catalogue (MP3C) program that collects information about the physical properties of asteroids in general.

The project Principal Investigator, Dr. Kosmas Gazeas, invites professional and amateur astronomers who wish to contribute on the observing campaign, and collect valuable information on primordial asteroid families.

The sample of asteroids, which are subject to be observed in the frame of Ancient Asteroids project, belong to the Primordial Family group of asteroids. They are faint and fast moving objects. Therefore, a large telescope and sensitive CCD camera is required, in order to achieve the desired signal to noise and perform accurate photometry. The project is planned to run for the next few years.

The data will be collected at the University of Athens Observatory and analyzed by Dimitrios Athanasopoulos, PhD candidate at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Please visit the official website:

http://users.uoa.gr/~kgaze/research_asteroids_en.html

and navigate through the specially designed pages.

Contact the team Any questions or queries, related to the Ancient Asteroids project, should be addressed to:

Kosmas Gazeas PI and Scientific Coordinator, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens kgaze@physics.auth.gr, kgaze@phys.uoa.gr

AND COPY to:

Dimitrios Athanasopoulos PhD candidate, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens dimathanaso@phys.uoa.gr

The email should have the title: "Ancient Asteroids", otherwise it will be omitted.