Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.3209y&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #32.09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Most small bodies in the Solar system possess optical colors that are either redder than, or comparable to, the Solar colors in the wavelength region from 0.4 to 0.9 µm. However, a small fraction, about 1 out of every 23 asteroids, is found to be bluer than the Sun. These rare, blue asteroids, of which 2 Pallas is the largest and most famous example, are classified as B-types in the Bus spectral taxonomy. The paucity of B-types already makes these objects interesting. Moreover, several meteor shower-associated asteroids (e.g. 3200 Phaethon, 2005 UD) are found to be blue in the optical. Furthermore, the available optical spectra of the main belt comets 133P and 176P are similar to those of the B-type asteroids.
However, B-type asteroids remain largely unexamined as a group and our knowledge of their properties is correspondingly limited. For this reason, we undertook a focused, spectroscopic study of 20 B-type asteroids using the 3-meter IRTF telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The spectra show that optically similar B-type asteroids are spectrally diverse in the near infrared. We find that the negative optical spectral slope is due to the presence of a broad absorption band centered near 1.0 µm. Amongst the meteorites, the best spectral analogs are found in the unusual CI and CM carbonaceous chondrites. The 1.0 µm absorption feature in several objects is very well matched by the reflection spectrum of magnetite. We will present our observations of the 20 B-type asteroids and discuss the possible aqueous alteration history of these objects.
Jewitt David
Yang Bin
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