Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jul 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997dps....29.0712d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #29, #07.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 29, p.974
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Recent analysis of Spacewatch data on over 60,000 main-belt asteroids obtained from 1992 to 1995 has produced a determination of the debiased absolute magnitude distribution of small main-belt asteroids of unprecedented detail (Jedicke and Metcalfe 1997, submitted to \it{Icarus}). The distribution is complete to H ~ 16 for the entire main-belt, and cannot be represented by a simple power-law distribution with a single slope index in any region of the belt. Instead, the absolute magnitude distribution shows a `kink', or small hump, at H ~ 13, corresponding to a diameter of approximately 10 km for a mean albedo of 0.1. Our numerical models of the collisional evolution of main-belt asteroids, which allows for size-dependent impact strengths and stochastic collisions, reproduces just such a `kink'. The hump is imposed on the size distribution as a result of the transition between rare, stochastic collisions between large asteroids and the more uniform, statistical nature of frequent collisions between smaller bodies. The observed position and magnitude of the hump confirm the theoretical results of Durda (1993, Ph.D. Thesis, U. Florida). By providing an observational constraint on the evolved size distribution output by continually improving collisional models (a function of the size dependence of the asteroid impact strengths), the Spacewatch data will provide knowledge of the internal structures of 10 km-scale asteroids.
Durda Daniel David
Greenberg Richard
Jedicke Robert
No associations
LandOfFree
The Size Distribution of 10 km-scale Main-belt Asteroids: Spacewatch Observations and Collisional Models does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The Size Distribution of 10 km-scale Main-belt Asteroids: Spacewatch Observations and Collisional Models, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Size Distribution of 10 km-scale Main-belt Asteroids: Spacewatch Observations and Collisional Models will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1187605