The size distribution of main-belt asteroids from IRAS data

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Asteroid Belts, Infrared Astronomy Satellite, Size Distribution, Albedo, Orbital Mechanics

Scientific paper

A set of 4000 numbered asteroids from the main belt are examined in terms of size distribution with attention given to subsets of the objects that relate to family membership and semimajor axis range. The IRAS database is employed to estimate albedo and diameter, and non-IRAS procedures are used check the albedo estimates. Nonfamily asteroids tend toward distributions with a marked change in slope at diameters of about 150 km and with a differential power-law distribution exponent with values of about 3 for large objects down to about 1 for small objects. The findings are contradicted only by the Flora region in which the sample is complete to sizes as small as 18 km and with a steep slope at small sizes. The findings suggest that collisional evolution did not play a significant role in the asteroidal evolution and that the asteroids are fragments from catastrophic collisions.

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