Polarimetry and BVRI photometry of the potentially hazardous near-Earth Asteroid (23187) 2000 PN9

The results of V-band polarimetric observations of the potentially hazardous near-Earth Asteroid (23187) 2000 PN9 at large phase angles are presented as well as its photometric observations in BVRI bands. Observations were made in March–April 2006 during its close approach to the Earth using the 1.82-m Asiago telescope (Italy) and the 0.7-m telescope at the Chuguevskaya Observational Station (Ukraine). We obtained polarimetric measurements at the phase angle of 115°, the largest phase angle ever observed in asteroid polarimetry. Our data show that the maximum value of the polarization phase curve reached 7.7% and occurred in the phase angle range of 90–115°. The measured values of linear polarization degree, BVRI colors and magnitude-phase dependence correspond to the S-type composition of this asteroid. Based on our observations the following characteristics of the Asteroid (23187) 2000 PN9 were obtained: a rotation period of 2.5325 ± 0.0004 h , a lightcurve amplitude of 0.13 mag, an albedo of 0.24 ± 0.06 and a diameter of 1.6 ± 0.3 km .