Statistical Method for Deriving Spatial and Size Distributions of Sub-km Main-Belt Asteroids from Their Sky Motions

Details Statistical Method for Deriving Spatial and Size Distributions of Sub-km Main-Belt Asteroids from Their Sky Motions Statistical Method for Deriving Spatial and Size Distributions of Sub-km Main-Belt Asteroids from Their Sky Motions

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002pasj...54.1079n&link_type=abstract

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, Vol.54, No.6, pp.1079-1089

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

11

Celestial Mechanics, Methods: Statistical, Minor Planets, Asteroids, Solar System: General

Scientific paper

The importance of sub-kilometer-sized objects among the main-belt asteroids (MBAs) has been progressively recognized in relation to the origin of near-Earth asteroids and the formation of rubble-pile asteroids. However, exact orbit determinations of those individual objects are practically impossible, because both their discovery and subsequent follow-up observations require 8-10m class telescopes, in which observation-time competition is severe. Therefore, we examine here instead a statistical method to deduce the spatial and size distributions of sub-km MBAs from only their apparent motion vectors on the sky. Assuming their near-opposition and near-ecliptic observations, we made simulations to estimate the accuracy of the semi-major axis (a) and inclination (I) obtained from their sky-motion vectors. The mean errors of a and I for each asteroid were found to be about 0.15AU and 1° 2° (for the asteroids with I < 10°) , respectively. Then, under a certain assumption, we calculated magnitudes and the size distribution of those computer-synthesized sub-km MBAs. Our statistical method could reproduce the slope of the cumulative size distribution for the original asteroid populations with errors of ˜ 0.05 0.1. These values are small enough for our survey purposes using the Subaru Telescope.

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