Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.2206e&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #22.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.426
Other
Scientific paper
Jupiter's Trojan asteroids occupy a unique location in the Solar System which places them at the crux of several of the most interesting outstanding issues regarding the formation and evolution of planetary systems. As primitive objects, their compositions conceal direct clues to the conditions of the nebula in the region in which they formed. Recent dynamical work has cast doubt on the traditional view that the Trojans formed near their present location at 5 AU, predicting instead their origination from the Kuiper Belt. Compositions of Trojans have thereby become a key test of the dynamical evolution of the Solar System. Despite their scientific value, little is known about the materials that comprise these bodies. The observed low albedos and reddish spectral slopes allow various compositional interpretations, though fine-grained silicates are known to be present from thermal-IR signatures. We have measured new near-infrared (0.8 - 2.5 microns) spectra of 71 Trojan asteroids using the SpeX instrument at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility. The sample includes smaller objects than we previously observed. These smaller bodies are statistically more likely to have suffered a surface-resetting impact recently, and may therefore show exposures of internal composition. The new spectra are generally featureless to within the level of noise in the data. However, two distinct spectral groups are identified based mainly on spectral slope. We expected a continuous distribution of slopes from nearly neutral to quite red, but found instead a distinct bimodality. A similar bimodality has recently been noted in the visible based on colors from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Szabo et al. 2007) and visible spectra (Roig et al. 2008). We will present the new near-infrared measurements, place them in context with other data on the Trojan asteroids, and discuss the implications for surface compositions and dynamical evolution of the Solar System.
Burr Devon M.
Cruikshank Dale P.
Emery Joshua P.
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