The Use of Asteroids for Determinations of Masses and other fundamental constants

Abstract

This report does not attempt to review all past and present work using asteroids for determinations of planetary masses and other fundamental constants. This would be a very large undertaking, and too extensively outside of the scope of a colloquium devoted to physical studies of minor planets. It seems preferable to concentrate more on principles involved, while mentioning only some of the various results obtained. At the same time, it will be appropriate to take note of the changed situation resulting from the recent development of certain modern methods and facilities that make it possible to determine some of the constants more accurately in other ways, thus partly eliminating the once dominant role of the minor planets.

Planetary radar astronomy

“…The most reliable pre-radar values for the AU and the mass of the Earth-Moon system were based on optical observations of the Mars-orbit-crossing asteroid 433 Eros (Brouwer and Clemence, 1961;McGuire et aL, 1961;Rabe, 1971). Soon after the object's 1898 discovery, it became clear that Eros astrometry could also yield an accurate estimate of the Mars/Sun mass ratio (Russell, 1900).…”