An Imaging Survey of the Statistical Frequency of Binaries Among Exceptionally-Young Dynamical Families in the Main Asteroid Belt

Details An Imaging Survey of the Statistical Frequency of Binaries Among Exceptionally-Young Dynamical Families in the Main Asteroid Belt An Imaging Survey of the Statistical Frequency of Binaries Among Exceptionally-Young Dynamical Families in the Main Asteroid Belt

Jul 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003hst..prop.9747m&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9747

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Hst Proposal Id #9747 Solar System

Scientific paper

We propose an ambitious SNAPSHOT program to determine the frequency of binaries among two very young asteroid families in the Main Belt, with potentially profound implications. These families {of C- and S-type} have recently been discovered {Nesvorny et al. 2002, Nature 417, 720}, through dynamical modeling, to have been formed at 5.8 MY and 8.3 MY ago in catastrophic impact events. This is the first time such precise and young ages have been assigned to a family. Main-belt binaries are almost certainly produced by collisions, and we would expect a young family to have a significantly higher frequency of binaries than the background, because they may not yet have been destroyed by impact or longer-term gravitational instabilities. In fact, one of the prime observables from such an event should be the propensity for satellites. This is the best way that new numerical models for binary production by collisions {motivated largely by our ground-based discoveries of satellites among larger asteroids}, can be validated and calibrated. HST is the only facility that can be used to search for binaries among such faint objects {V>17.5}. We will also measure two control clusters, one being an "old" family, and the other a collection of background asteroids that do not have a family association, and further compare with our determined value for the frequency of large main-belt binaries {2%}. We request visits to 180 targets, using ACS/HRC.

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