The Population of Near-Earth Asteroids

Details The Population of Near-Earth Asteroids The Population of Near-Earth Asteroids

May 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000dda....31.0604h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA Meeting #31, #06.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.862

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

For purposes of defining a population vs. size, we define a Near-Earth asteroid as one with a perihelion less than 1.3 AU, and we measure size in terms of absolute magnitude H, rather than actual size. Earlier estimates of the population with H < 18.0 (generally considered to correspond to diameter > 1 km) range from as many as 2000 to as few as 750. I have estimated the population in two ways: (1) by extrapolating a model fit over the range where surveys are complete already (H < 14.5) down to H = 18.0; and (2) by dividing the numbers of already discovered asteroids by the ratio of the number of new discoveries to total detections (new plus re-detections) in the last year. Method (1) yields a population estimate of about 1500 brighter (larger) than H = 18.0, and method (2) yields about 1000. The uncertainty in either method is about equal to the separation between the values. This research was supported by NASA under contract to JPL.

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