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Register a new userThe common origin of family and non-family asteroids
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All asteroids are currently classified as either family, originating from the disruption of known bodies, or non-family. An outstanding question is the origin of these non-family asteroids. Were they formed individually, or as members of known families but with chaotically evolving orbits, or are they members of old ghost families, that is, asteroids with a common parent body but with orbits that no longer cluster in orbital element space? Here, we show that the sizes of the non-family asteroids in the inner belt are correlated with their orbital eccentricities and anticorrelated with their inclinations, suggesting that both non-family and family asteroids originate from a small number of large primordial planetesimals. We estimate that ~85% of the asteroids in the inner main belt originate from the Flora, Vesta, Nysa, Polana and Eulalia families, with the remaining ~15% originating from either the same families or, more likely, a few ghost families. These new results imply that we must seek explanations for the differing characteristics of the various meteorite groups in the evolutionary histories of a few, large, precursor bodies. Our findings also support the model that asteroids formed big through the gravitational collapse of material in a protoplanetary disk.
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The Karin family is a very young asteroid family created by an asteroid breakup 5.8 Myr ago. Since the members of this family probably have not experienced significant orbital or collisional evolution yet, it is possible that they still preserve properties of the original family-forming event in terms of their spin state. As we carried out a series of photometric observations of the Karin family asteroids, here we report an analysis result of lightcurves including the rotation period of eleven members. The mean rotation rate of the Karin family members turned out to be much lower than those of NEAs or smaller MBAs (diameter D<12 km), and even lower than that of larger MBAs (D>130 km). We investigated a correlation between the peak-to-peak variation magnitude reduced to zero solar phase angle and the rotation period of the eleven Karin family asteroids, and found a possible trend that elongated members have lower spin rate, and less elongated members have higher spin rate. However, this has to be confirmed by another series of future observations.
We report on the results of a systematic search for associated asteroid families for all active asteroids known to date. We find that 10 out of 12 main-belt comets (MBCs) and 5 out of 7 disrupted asteroids are linked with known or candidate families, rates that have ~0.1% and ~6% probabilities, respectively, of occurring by chance, given an overall family association rate of 37% for asteroids in the inner solar system. We find previously unidentified family associations between 238P/Read and the candidate Gorchakov family, 311P/PANSTARRS and the candidate Behrens family, 324P/La Sagra and the Alauda family, 354P/LINEAR and the Baptistina family, P/2013 R3-B (Catalina-PANSTARRS) and the Mandragora family, P/2015 X6 (PANSTARRS) and the Aeolia family, P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS) and the Adeona family, and P/2016 J1-A/B (PANSTARRS) and the Theobalda family. All MBCs with family associations belong to families that contain asteroids with primitive taxonomic classifications and low average reported albedos (pV_avg < 0.10), while disrupted asteroids with family associations belong to families that contain asteroids that span wider ranges of taxonomic types and average reported albedos (0.06 < pV_avg < 0.25). These findings are consistent with MBC activity being closely correlated to composition (i.e., whether an object is likely to contain ice), while disrupted asteroid activity is not as sensitive to composition. Given our results, we describe a sequence of processes by which the formation of young asteroid families could lead to the production of present-day MBCs.
We have used the XSHOOTER echelle spectrograph on the European Southern Obseratory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) to obtain UVB-VIS-NIR (ultraviolet-blue (UVB), visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR)) reflectance spectra of two members of the Eureka family of L5 Mars Trojans, in order to test a genetic relationship to Eureka. In addition to obtaining spectra, we also carried out VRI photometry of one of the VLT targets using the 2-m telescope at the Bulgarian National Astronomical Observatory - Rozhen and the two-channel focal reducer. We found that these asteroids belong to the olivine-dominated A, or Sa, taxonomic class. As Eureka itself is also an olivine-dominated asteroid, it is likely that all family asteroids share a common origin and composition. We discuss the significance of these results in terms of the origin of the martian Trojan population.
Themis family is one of the largest and oldest asteroid populations in the main-belt. Water-ice may widely exist on the parent body (24) Themis. In this work, we employ the Advanced Thermophysical Model as well as mid-infrared measurements from NASAs Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer to explore thermal parameters of 20 Themis family members. Here we show that the average thermal inertia and geometric albedo are ~$39.5pm26.0 ~rm J m^{-2} s^{-1/2} K^{-1}$ and $0.067pm0.018$, respectively. The family members have a relatively moderate roughness fraction on their surfaces. We find that the relatively low albedos of Themis members are consistent with the typical values of B-type and C-type asteroids. As aforementioned, Themis family bears a very low thermal inertia, which indicates a fine and mature regolith on their surfaces. The resemblance of thermal inertia and geometric albedo of Themis members may reveal their close connection in origin and evolution. In addition, we present the compared results of thermal parameters for several prominent families.
Context: Surveys in the visible and near-infrared spectral range have revealed the presence of low-albedo asteroids in cometary like orbits (ACOs). In contrast to Jupiter family comets (JFCs), ACOs are inactive, but possess similar orbital parameters. Aims: In this work, we discuss why ACOs are inactive, whereas JFCs show gas-driven dust activity, although both belong to the same class of primitive solar system bodies. Methods: We hypothesize that ACOs and JFCs have formed under the same physical conditions, namely by the gravitational collapse of ensembles of ice and dust aggregates. We use the memory effect of dust-aggregate layers under gravitational compression to discuss under which conditions the gas-driven dust activity of these bodies is possible. Results: Owing to their smaller sizes, JFCs can sustain gas-driven dust activity much longer than the bigger ACOs, whose sub-surface regions possess an increased tensile strength, due to gravitational compression of the material. The increased tensile strength leads to the passivation against dust activity after a relatively short time of activity. Conclusions: The gravitational-collapse model of the formation of planetesimals, together with the gravitational compression of the sub-surface material simultaneously, explains the inactivity of ACOs and the gas-driven dust activity of JFCs. Their initially larger sizes means that ACOs possess a higher tensile strength of their sub-surface material, which leads to a faster termination of gas-driven dust activity. Most objects with radii larger than $2 , mathrm{km}$ have already lost their activity due to former gravitational compression of their current surface material.
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