Exploring the physical properties of Jupiter Trojans and Hildas with the TESS space telescope

Jovian Trojan and Hilda asteroids are of particular importance because they provide important constraints for Solar System formation and evolution models. Despite their large number, rotational characteristics are known for a relatively limited sample from ground-based observations. Rotation period and amplitude distributions derived from this sample are strongly affected by ground-based biases, as it was shown by recent studies using data from the K2 mission of the Kepler Space Telescope. An important result of these investigations is that there are a significantly larger number of slow rotators than previously thought. Here we present several week-long, uninterrupted light curves, in many cases spanning over multiple sectors for a large number of Jovian Trojans and Hildas, provided by the TESS mission. Our results are compared with the previous investigations of ground-based observations and K2 measurements, confirming the significance and the presence of slow rotators as it was hinted by earlier studies. We also investigate the difference between the rotational characteristics of the 'red' and 'less red' groups and that of the different collisional families. 

Figure 1.:Cleaned light curve, frequency spectrum and folded light curve of the Hilda asteroids (153) Hilda and (197558) 2004 FL122, observed by TESS.