Planetary Encounters as the Cause of Fresh Asteroid Surfaces

Details Planetary Encounters as the Cause of Fresh Asteroid Surfaces Planetary Encounters as the Cause of Fresh Asteroid Surfaces

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.5301b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #53.01

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Space weathering to redden asteroid surfaces by the solar wind appears to be a very rapid (<1My) process (Vernazza et al. 2009, Nature 458, 993). Yet many near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) appear to show "fresh" unweathered surfaces (e.g. Q-type asteroid 1862 Apollo). Marchi et al. (2006; MNRAS 368, L39) found that NEAs with low perihelia tend to have less weathered surfaces. They attributed this perihelion correlation with the increased likelihood of a planetary encounter tidally distorting and "refreshing" the surface. We explore this hypothesis more directly by finding a correlation with the Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID), i.e. a correlation for NEAs whose orbits currently allow very close encounters with terrestrial planets. We find a correlation between current MOID values and the spectral characteristics of our large data set of near-Earth asteroid spectra. Among NEAs residing in the S-complex, we find a spectral trend for those asteroids having the lowest MOID values to have "freshest" (least weathered) spectral signatures. We are following up this correlation with detailed orbital integrations to verify the dynamical history of NEAs that appear to have the "freshest" and least weathered surfaces. These additional results will be included in our presentation.

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