Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Nov 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001dps....33.3102f&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #33, #31.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1093
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
1
Scientific paper
A cometary nucleus has several possible end-states, some catastrophic, some not. Measuring the albedo distribution of near-Earth objects in comet-like orbits can provide clues to the number of comets that survive their active lifetime intact to become observationally asteroid-like. By ``comet-like orbit,'' we refer to objects with a Tisserand invariant T in the cometary regime, T<3. We present new radiometric albedos for several inactive objects with T<3, including some retrograde objects. We find that most of these objects are as dark or darker than active cometary nuclei, with geometric albedos around 3%, implying that they are candidate extinct comets. Moreover, the current albedo distribution for inactive objects with T<3 shows that an overwhelming majority are on the dark side, far more than would be estimated by the distribution of the T>3 objects. We place an upper limit of 10% to the fraction of near-Earth and unusual asteroids that are extinct comets. (This work is supported by grants from NSF.)
Fernandez Yan R.
Jewitt David C.
Sheppard Scott S.
No associations
LandOfFree
Low Albedos Among Candidate Extinct Cometary Nuclei 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 Low Albedos Among Candidate Extinct Cometary Nuclei, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Low Albedos Among Candidate Extinct Cometary Nuclei will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1238174