The Vesta Asteroid Family: Origin and Evolution

Details The Vesta Asteroid Family: Origin and Evolution The Vesta Asteroid Family: Origin and Evolution

Jan 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996eiaf.conf...16m&link_type=abstract

Workshop on Evolution of Igneous Asteroids: Focus on Vesta and the HED Meterorites, p. 16

Other

Achondrites, Cratering, Ejecta, Meteoritic Composition, Vesta Asteroid, Mathematical Models, Cosmology, Escape Velocity, Hubble Space Telescope

Scientific paper

In the latest family search by Zappala et al., with a 12,487- asteroid sample, the size of the Vesta family has increased to more than 200 objects. The large gap in size between Vesta and other family members strongly suggests that the Vesta family was generated by an energetic impact cratering event, ejecting a large number of fragments from Vesta's surface at speeds exceeding approximately 350 miles per second (Vesta's escape velocity). Recent images of Vesta obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of large-scale albedo and color variegation of the surface that can be interpreted as distinct impact basins product of giant impacts that exposed deeper strata on the asteroid surface. High-velocity ejecta from Vesta can be inserted into Earth-crossing orbits by the 3:1 jovian mean motion resonance and become near-Earth asteroids (NEAS) and meteorites. Howardite/eucrite/diogenite (HED) basal- tic achondrite meteorites and several NEAs display reflectance spectra nearly identical to that of Vesta. This spectral relationship suggests that Vesta might be the parent body of these objects. We have adopted a numerical approach to model the cratering event(s) on Vesta that generated the family, and to simulate the subsequent evolution of the family due to catastrophic collisions with "background" asteroids.

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