(704) Interamnia: a transitional object between a dwarf planet and a typical irregular-shaped minor body

Context. With an estimated diameter in the 320-350 km range, (704) Interamnia is the fifth largest main belt asteroid and one of the few bodies that fills the gap in size between the four largest bodies with D > 400 km (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea) and the numerous smaller bodies with diameter ≤200 km. However, despite its large size, little is known about the shape and spin state of Interamnia and, therefore, about its bulk composition and past collisional evolution. <BR /> Aims: We aimed to test at what size and mass the shape of a small body departs from a nearly ellipsoidal equilibrium shape (as observed in the case of the four largest asteroids) to an irregular shape as routinely observed in the case of smaller (D ≤ 200 km) bodies. <BR /> Methods: We observed Interamnia as part of our ESO VLT/SPHERE large program (ID: 199.C-0074) at thirteen different epochs. In addition, several new optical lightcurves were recorded. These data, along with stellar occultation data from the literature, were fed to the All-Data Asteroid Modeling algorithm to reconstruct the 3D-shape model of Interamnia and to determine its spin state. <BR /> Results: Interamnia's volume-equivalent diameter of 332 ± 6 km implies a bulk density of ρ = 1.98 ± 0.68 g cm[SUP]-3[/SUP], which suggests that Interamnia - like Ceres and Hygiea - contains a high fraction of water ice, consistent with the paucity of apparent craters. Our observations reveal a shape that can be well approximated by an ellipsoid, and that is compatible with a fluid hydrostatic equilibrium at the 2σ level. <BR /> Conclusions: The rather regular shape of Interamnia implies that the size and mass limit, under which the shapes of minor bodies with a high amount of water ice in the subsurface become irregular, has to be searched among smaller (D ≤ 300 km) less massive (m ≤ 3 × 10[SUP]19[/SUP] kg) bodies. <P />The reduced images are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to <A href="http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr">http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr</A> (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via <A href="http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz- bin/cat/J/A+A/633/A65">http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz- bin/cat/J/A+A/633/A65</A> <P />Based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under program 199.C-0074 (PI: Vernazza).