Jupiter Trojan asteroids are minor bodies that share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun.Although not yet well understood in origin and composition, they have surface properties that, besides being comparable with other populations of small bodies in the Solar System, hold information that may restrict models of planetary formation. Due their importance, there has been a significant increase in an interest in studying this population. In this context arises the NASA Lucy Mission, with a planned launch of 2021. The Lucy Mission will be the first one to address a group of 6 objects (five Jupiter Trojan and one main belt asteroid) with the aim of investigating, in detail, their nature. In order to provide valuable information for mission planning and maximize the scientific return, we carried out ground based observations of four targets of the mission. Aimed at looking for variabilities on the spectra of (3548) Eurybates, (15094) Polymele and (21900) Orus, we performed rotationally resolved visible spectroscopy of them at SOAR Telescope. We also analyzed the first visible spectrum obtained for the main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson at Gran Telescopio Canarias. The spectra of (21900) Orus and (15094) Polymele present rather homogeneous characteristics along the surfaces, and their taxa correspond with those of the two dominant populations in the Trojan population, the P-and the D-type group of objects. Spectroscopy of (3548) Eurybates, on the other side, suggests that some variation on the characteristics of the reflectance of this body could be related with its collisional history. Donaldjohanson, the only main belt object in the group of targets, shows, according to our visible spectrum, hints of the presence of hydrated materials. Lucy mission will investigate the surface composition of these targets and will shed light on their connections with other minor bodies populations and in their role on the evolution of the Solar System.

Context. Recent results for asteroid rotation periods from the TESS mission showed how strongly previous studies have underestimated the number of slow rotators, revealing the importance of studying those targets. For most slowly rotating asteroids (those with P > 12 h), no spin and shape model is available because of observation selection effects. This hampers determination of their thermal parameters and accurate sizes. Also, it is still unclear whether signatures of different surface material properties can be seen in thermal inertia determined from mid-infrared thermal flux fitting. Aims. We continue our campaign in minimising selection effects among main belt asteroids. Our targets are slow rotators with low light-curve amplitudes. Our goal is to provide their scaled spin and shape models together with thermal inertia, albedo, and surface roughness to complete the statistics. Methods. Rich multi-apparition datasets of dense light curves are supplemented with data from Kepler and TESS spacecrafts. In addition to data in the visible range, we also use thermal data from infrared space observatories (mainly IRAS, Akari and WISE) in a combined optimisation process using the Convex Inversion Thermophysical Model. This novel method has so far been applied to only a few targets, and therefore in this work we further validate the method itself. Results. We present the models of 16 slow rotators, including two updated models. All provide good fits to both thermal and visible data.The obtained sizes are on average accurate at the 5% precision level, with diameters found to be in the range from 25 to 145 km. The rotation periods of our targets range from 11 to 59 h, and the thermal inertia covers a wide range of values, from 2 to <400 J m−2 s−1∕2 K−1, not showing any correlation with the period. Conclusions. With this work we increase the sample of slow rotators with reliable spin and shape models and known thermal inertia by 40%. The thermal inertia values of our sample do not display a previously suggested increasing trend with rotation period, which mightbe due to their small skin depth.

Photometric observations of the nearly equal-mass binary near-Earth asteroid 2017 YE5 were carried out at the Observatório Astronômico do Sertão de Itaparica (OASI, Brazil) and at the Blue Mountains Observatory (BMO, Australia) between July and August 2018, shortly after it made a close approach to Earth in June 2018. These observations allowed to determine an orbital period of the system in good agreement with the result of the radar observations. Our results also indicate that the 2017 YE5 system is not fully locked in a synchronous spin-orbit resonance, as there is a possible asynchronous component or tumbling rotator in the system. Additional data obtained at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional de San Pedro Mártir (OAN-SPM, Mexico) in August 2018 allowed to derive the colour indices and the low resolution spectrum, which indicate that the object has a very reddish surface similar to the outer Solar system objetcs. This is consistent with a dark albedo of about 3 per cent, derived from an effective diameter of the combined components and an absolute magnitude of 19.2. Infrared data obtained at the NASA’s IRTF exhibit a thermal emission in the 2.5 μm range for which a low albedo of 2-4 per cent was adjusted by applying a thermal model. Regarding to the taxonomic classification, we found that the 2017 YE5 is a D-type in the Bus-DeMeo taxonomy. Therefore, according to our results and considering that the 2017 YE5 system has a typical comet orbit (TJ = 2.87), we suggest that it is a dormant Jupiter-family binary comet.