Asteroids and comets : a comparison of polarization properties

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

A detailed study of the linear polarization of asteroids in different spectral bands has been carried out on the basis of all the data available, including our own measurements. The parameters of polarization curves, such as (min, Pmin, (inv, h, Pmax, (max, and their wavelength dependence have been obtained. In general, the synthetic phase curves of polarization for C-type asteroids and cometary dust are very similar at small phase angles but they are appreciably differed at large phase angles. We analyze the peculiarities of the phase and spectral dependence of polarization for comets and asteroids and discuss them in the framework of existing mechanisms of light scattering. In order to explain the negative branch of polarization observed both for asteroids and comets, a unified approach has been proposed. Since the homogeneous particles, even of irregular shape, mostly do not demonstrate this peculiarity, we considered the scatters as aggregates composed of monomers of the wavelength size. Although the regolith grains are known to be much larger than the particles discussed here, the experiments showed that namely the surface irregularities comparable to the wavelength induce the negative branch of polarization. The aggregate model explains the main features of the phase and spectral dependence of the polarization observed for comets and asteroids.

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