The 2017 May 20 stellar occultation by the elongated centaur (95626) 2002 GZ32

Full list of authors: Santos-Sanz, P.; Ortiz, J. L.; Sicardy, B.; Benedetti-Rossi, G.; Morales, N.; Fernández-Valenzuela, E.; Duffard, R.; Iglesias-Marzoa, R.; Lamadrid, J. L.; Maícas, N.; Pérez, L.; Gazeas, K.; Guirado, J. C.; Peris, V.; Ballesteros, F. J.; Organero, F.; Ana-Hernández, L.; Fonseca, F.; Alvarez-Candal, A.; Jiménez-Teja, Y. Vara-Lubiano, M.; Braga-Ribas, F.; Camargo, J. I. B.; Desmars, J.; Assafin, M.; Vieira-Martins, R.; Alikakos, J.; Boutet, M.; Bretton, M.; Carbognani, A.; Charmandaris, V.; Ciabattari, F.; Delincak, P.; Fuambuena Leiva, A.; González, H.; Haymes, T.; Hellmich, S.; Horbowicz, J.; Jennings, M.; Kattentidt, B.; Kiss, Cs; Komžík, R.; Lecacheux, J.; Marciniak, A.; Moindrot, S.; Mottola, S.; Pal, A.; Paschalis, N.; Pastor, S.; Perello, C.; Pribulla, T.; Ratinaud, C.; Reyes, J. A.; Sanchez, J.; Schnabel, C.; Selva, A.; Signoret, F.; Sonbas, E.; Alí-Lagoa, V.--This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
We predicted a stellar occultation of the bright star Gaia DR1 4332852996360346368 (UCAC4 385-75921) (mV = 14.0 mag) by the centaur 2002 GZ32 for 2017 May 20. Our latest shadow path prediction was favourable to a large region in Europe. Observations were arranged in a broad region inside the nominal shadow path. Series of images were obtained with 29 telescopes throughout Europe and from six of them (five in Spain and one in Greece) we detected the occultation. This is the fourth centaur, besides Chariklo, Chiron, and Bienor, for which a multichord stellar occultation is reported. By means of an elliptical fit to the occultation chords, we obtained the limb of 2002 GZ32 during the occultation, resulting in an ellipse with axes of 305 ± 17 km × 146 ± 8 km. From this limb, thanks to a rotational light curve obtained shortly after the occultation, we derived the geometric albedo of 2002 GZ32 (pV = 0.043 ± 0.007) and a 3D ellipsoidal shape with axes 366 km × 306 km × 120 km. This shape is not fully consistent with a homogeneous body in hydrostatic equilibrium for the known rotation period of 2002 GZ32. The size (albedo) obtained from the occultation is respectively smaller (greater) than that derived from the radiometric technique but compatible within error bars. No rings or debris around 2002 GZ32 were detected from the occultation, but narrow and thin rings cannot be discarded. © 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
P.S-S. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish grant AYA-RTI2018-098657-J-I00 'LEO-SBNAF' (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). PS-S, JLO, NM, and RD acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the 'Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa' award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709), they also acknowledge the financial support by the Spanish grant AYA-2017-84637-R and the Proyecto de Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucia J.A. 2012-FQM1776. We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no. 687378, as part of the project `Small Bodies Near and Far' (SBNAF). Part of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community's H2020 (2014-2020/ERC Grant Agreement no. 669416 `LUCKY STAR'). E.F-V. acknowledges funding through the Preeminant Postdoctoral Program of the University of Central Florida. Part of the data were collected during the photometric monitoring observations with the robotic and remotely controlled observatory at the University of Athens Observatory -UOAO (Gazeas 2016). F.J.B. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish grant AYA2016-81065-C2-2-P. A.A-C. acknowledges support from FAPERJ (grant E26/203.186/2016) and CNPq (grants 304971/20162 and 401669/2016-5). A.C. acknowledges the use of the main telescope of theAstronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA). C.K. has been supported by the grants K125015 and GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00003 of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary (NKFIH). T.P. and R.K. acknowledge support from the project ITMS No. 26220120029, based on the Research and development program financed from the European Regional Development Fund and from the Slovak Research and Development Agency -the contract No. APVV-150458. We are grateful to the CAHA and OSN staffs. This research is partially based on observations collected at Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by Junta de Andalucia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IAA-CSIC). This research was also partially based on observation carried out at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN) operated by Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC). This article is also based on observations made with the Liverpool Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in the Spanish Roque de losMuchachos Observatory. Partially based on observations made with the Tx40 telescope at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre in Teruel, a Spanish Infraestructura Cientifico-Tecnica Singular (ICTS) owned, managed and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Arag on (CEFCA). Tx40 is funded with the Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel (FITE). This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium).Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement.