The Sub-Kilometer Asteroid Diameter Survey

Statistics – Computation

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

We have acquired good-quality orbital and absolute H-magnitude determinations in order to study the orbital and size distribution of small main-belt asteroids. Based on six observing nights over a 11-night baseline, we have detected, measured photometry for, and linked observations of 1,087 asteroids which have one-week time baselines or more. The linkages allows the computation of full heliocentric orbits (as opposed to only statistical distances as some surveys have had in the past). Judged against known asteroids in the field, the typical uncertainty in the (a/e/i) orbital elements is less than 0.03 AU/0.03/0.5 degrees. The distances to the objects are sufficiently well known that photometric uncertainties dominate the error budget of their derived H-magnitudes, which are generally known to 0.3 magnitudes or better. The detected asteroids range from H = 12-22 and thus provide a set of objects to study down to sizes well below 1 kilometer in diameter. We find an on-sky surface density of 210 asteroids per square degree in
the ecliptic with opposition magnitudes brighter than mR = 23, with the cumulative number of asteroids increasing by a factor of 100.27/mag from mR = 18 down to the roughly 23rd magnitude limit of our survey. In terms of absolute H magnitudes, we find, in contrast to previous results, that the belt exhibits a constant power law slope with the number increasing proportional to 100.38 H from H = 13-17, after which incompleteness begins in our survey.

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