Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dda....39.0203m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #39, #2.03
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
In recent years, the distribution of orbital elements within an asteroid family has been shown to be affected both by the Yarkovsky effect and by passage across weak planetary resonances (e.g., Nesvorny et al. 2002, Icarus, 157, 155-172; Bottke et al. 2007, Nature, 449, 48-53). In extreme cases such as the Flora family, the degree of dispersion and the presence of a significant background make it difficult to reliably identify family members with standard techniques. This paper presents a new statistical approach to identifying asteroid family members that makes use of the size dependence introduced by the Yarkovsky effect.
We apply this technique to the Flora family and find the signature of the Yarkovsky effect there. We apply it to the Baptistina family and find the signature of a planetary resonance. Also, comparison of the two results yields a relative age of the two families.
Finally, we discuss how the details of family orbital evolution might be probed by an observational study of asteroid spin axes. We show that such a study is feasible for the Flora family using a modified version of the epoch method of axis determination.
Haegert Melissa J.
Molnar Lawrence A.
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