Statistics
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.6301d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #63.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1091
Statistics
Scientific paper
We show that, in contrast to the broad-scale structure of the distribution of asteroidal orbital frequencies that is associated with gaps, known as the Kirkwood gaps, the fine-scale structure is characterized by peaks associated with asteroids trapped in mean motion resonances. It has already been shown that overlapping jovian resonances determine the structure of the outer belt, here we show that overlapping martian resonances determine the structure of the inner belt. Drag forces due to radiation forces on the asteroids trapped in resonance will have resulted in small asteroids being removed from the asteroid belt selectively, as determined by a range of asteroidal physical properties. To understand the structure of the present belt, and its larger precursor, we need to understand the nature and extent of these physical selection effects. Even if these selection effects were small, if the present asteroid population is a small remnant of the original population, then small but persistent selection effects acting over the age of the solar system would have shaped the characteristics of the remnant population. In this respect, statistics on the rotational characteristics of asteroids may be of interest. There is evidence that an excess of small, slow rotators have been removed from the main belt. There also seems to be a deficiency of asteroids in the main belt with high obliquity and there are more prograde rotators than retrograde rotators in the NEA population. We suggest that these features may be accounted for by the combined effects of Yarkovsky forces and gravitational resonances resulting in the selective removal of asteroids from the main belt.
Dermott Stanley F.
Kehoe Thomas J. J.
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