The Diversity of Hydrated Material on Low-Albedo Asteroids

Details The Diversity of Hydrated Material on Low-Albedo Asteroids The Diversity of Hydrated Material on Low-Albedo Asteroids

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.5308r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #53.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1073

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Introduction: Low albedo asteroids are associated with the carbonaceous chondrites. They dominate the asteroid belt, with the C complex the most common spectral class in the middle to outer belt [1].
Water/OH as ice or bound into minerals strongly absorbs in the 3-µm spectral region. While water in the Earth's atmosphere makes this spectral region a relatively difficult one to work in, decades of successful observations have been obtained [2-5], mostly using the NASA IRTF on Mauna Kea, with the SpeX instrument the main workhorse during the 21st century [6].
Results: We have made over 100 observations of several dozen low albedo asteroids since 2002. This survey has led to the identification of ice on the surface of 24 Themis [7] and the identification of brucite and carbonates on the surface of 1 Ceres [8,9]. It has also demonstrated the diversity of hydrated material in the asteroid belt, with spectral shapes ranging from CM-like to Ceres-like, and other yet-unidentified materials. There appear to be at least 4 plausible spectral classes, including one "anhydrous” group.
I will present the results of the survey so far, implications of what we have found so far, and future directions.
This work is supported by the NASA Planetary Astronomy Program.References: [1] Bus S. J and Binzel R. P. 2002, Icarus. [2] Lebofsky L. A. 1978, Mon. Notes Royal Ast. Soc.. [3] Feierberg, M. A., et al. 1981, Geochem Cosmochem. Acta. [4] Jones T. D. et al. 1990, Icarus. [5] Rivkin A. S. et al. 2003, Met. Plan. Sci. . [6] Rayner, J. T. et al. 2003, Pub. Ast. Soc. Pac. . [7] Rivkin, A. S. and Emery, J. P. 2010, Nature. [8] Rivkin A. S. et al. 2006, Icarus . [9] Milliken, R. E. and Rivkin, A. S. 2009, Nature Geosc. .

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