Sizes and Albedos of Young C-type Asteroids

Details Sizes and Albedos of Young C-type Asteroids Sizes and Albedos of Young C-type Asteroids

Jun 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005sptz.prop20788t&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #20788

Physics

Scientific paper

We propose to measure the sizes and albedos of 8 very young C-type asteroids with IRAC 8um and near-simultaneous ground-based visible photometry. Asteroid families are created from major collisions between asteroids and are identified from clustering of orbital elements. Co-I Nesvorny has recently identified an exceptionally-young family (Veritas) and precisely-dated it at only 8.3+/-0.5 Myr (just 0.2% of the age of the solar system). We will compare our results for this family with those obtained by our similar Spitzer GO-1 program where we study an even younger S-type family, Karin. C-type asteroids are composed of primitive material (as opposed to the more processed silicate-rich S-types) and comprise the majority of asteorids in the Main Belt, yet their compositions and properties remain elusive. These recent breakup events provide unparalleled opportunities to study compositions, dynamics, and collisions of asteroids. They allow tests of the rates of physical processes that happen on time scales comparable with the family age. Space weathering, for example, appears to affect C- and S-type asteroids very differently. We will test directly whether the Veritas fragments have similar albedos; we will also test if their albedos differ from those of similar asteroids with much older surfaces by study of a second C-type family, Themis. We will compare our observations with those made of larger asteroids of both families, from a companion ground-based program. We will quantify any correlation of size with albedo, a dominant uncertainty in standard size estimates. The size distribution will be used to calibrate hydrocode models of asteroid collisions. To do this will require observations at the smallest practical sizes. In addition, the measured sizes will be immediately applicable to a novel measurement of the Yarkovsky Effect. We have already demonstrated in our GO-1 program that we can make similar Spitzer observations and provide the ground-based visible support.

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