We measure the mid-plane of the main asteroid belt by using the observational data of a nearly complete and unbiased sample of asteroids, and find that it has inclination $\bar{I}=0.93\pm0.04$ degrees and longitude of ascending node $\barΩ=87.6\pm2.6$ degrees (in J2000 ecliptic-equinox coordinate system). This plane differs significantly from previously published measurements, and it is also distinctly different than the solar system's invariable plane as well as Jupiter's orbit plane. The mid-plane of the asteroid belt is theoretically expected to be a slightly warped sheet whose local normal is controlled by the gravity of the major planets. Specifically, its inclination and longitude of ascending node varies with semi-major axis and time (on secular timescales), and is defined by the forced solution of secular perturbation theory; the $ν_{16}$ nodal secular resonance is predicted to cause a significant warp of the mid-plane in the inner asteroid belt. We test the secular theory by measuring the current location of the asteroids' mid-plane in finer semi-major axis bins. We find that the measured mid-plane in the middle and outer asteroid belt is consistent, within 3--$σ$ confidence level, with the prediction of secular perturbation theory, but a notable discrepancy is present in the inner asteroid belt near $\sim2$ AU.
The study of active asteroids has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years since the recognition of main-belt comets (which orbit in the main asteroid belt, but exhibit comet-like activity due to the sublimation of volatile ices) as a new class of comets in 2006, and the discovery of the first disrupted asteroids (which, unlike MBCs, exhibit comet-like activity due to a physical disruption such as an impact or rotational destabilization, not sublimation) in 2010. In this paper, I will briefly discuss key areas of interest in the study of active asteroids.
We carried out low-resolution optical spectroscopy of 51 main-belt asteroids, most of which have highly-inclined orbits. They are selected from D-type candidates in the SDSS-MOC 4 catalog. Using the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics 2 m telescope in India, we determined the spectral types of 38 asteroids. Among them, eight asteroids were classified as D-type asteroids. Fractions of D-type asteroids are 3.0+/-1.1 for low orbital inclination main-belt asteroids and 7.3+/-2.0 for high orbital inclination main-belt asteroids. The re…
The observationally complete sample of the main belt asteroids now spans more than two orders of magnitude in size and numbers more than 64,000 (excluding collisional family members). We undertook an analysis of asteroids' eccentricities and their interpretation with simple physical models. We find that Plummer's (1916) conclusion that the asteroids' eccentricities follow a Rayleigh distribution holds for the osculating eccentricities of large asteroids, but the proper eccentricities deviate from a Rayleigh distribution: there is a deficit of eccentricities smaller than $\sim0.1$ and an excess…
Orbital resonances are believed to be responsible for the delivery of main belt asteroids to the inner Solar System. Several possibilities have been suggested to transport asteroids and their fragments into mean motion and secular resonances including non-gravitational forces and gravitational scattering. We investigate future resonance crossings of known asteroids that occur in the main belt over the next century. Our goal is to identify potentially observable injections of asteroids into source regions for Near Earth Objects (NEOs) as well as to determine the role of close encounters among m…
Suggestions have been made that asteroid belts may be important both for the existence of life and perhaps even for the evolution of complex life on a planet. Using numerical models for protoplanetary discs we calculate the location of the snow line, and we propose that asteroid belts are most likely to form in its vicinity. We then show that observations of warm dust in exo-solar systems, thought to be produced by collisions between asteroids in a belt, indicate that asteroid belts (when they exist), indeed coincide with the radial location and the temperature of the snow line. Giant planets …
Advances in the discovery and characterization of asteroids over the past decade have revealed an unanticipated underlying structure that points to a dramatic early history of the inner Solar System. The asteroids in the main asteroid belt have been discovered to be more compositionally diverse with size and distance from the Sun than had previously been known. This implies substantial mixing through processes such as planetary migration and the subsequent dynamical processes.
Two extremely red main-belt asteroids: 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia, were identified from combined visible and near-infrared spectroscopic observations collected at the IRTF and SAO observatories. These two asteroids have a redder spectral slope than any other D-type body, which are the reddest objects in the asteroid belt, and similar to RR and IR-class objects found in the outer Solar System among trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs. Spectroscopic results suggest the presence of complex organic materials on the surface layer of these asteroids, implying that they could have formed in the vi…
The Earth contains between one and ten oceans of water, including water within the mantle, where one ocean is the mass of water on the Earth's surface today. With $n$-body simulations we consider how much water could have been delivered from the asteroid belt to the Earth after its formation. Asteroids are delivered from unstable regions near resonances with the giant planets. We compare the relative impact efficiencies from the $ν_6$ resonance, the 2:1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter and the outer asteroid belt. The $ν_6$ resonance provides the largest supply of asteroids to the Earth, wit…
The main asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but the region is not uniformly filled with asteroids. There are gaps, known as the Kirkwood gaps, in the asteroid distribution in distinct locations that are associated with orbital resonances with the giant planets; asteroids placed in these locations follow chaotic orbits and escape from the asteroid belt. Here we show that the observed distribution of main belt asteroids does not fill uniformly even those regions that are dynamically stable over the age of the solar system. We find a pattern of excess depletion of asteroid…
The past decade has brought major improvements in large-scale asteroid discovery and characterization with over half a million known asteroids and over 100,000 with some measurement of physical characterization. This explosion of data has allowed us to create a new global picture of the Main Asteroid Belt. Put in context with meteorite measurements and dynamical models, a new and more complete picture of Solar System evolution has emerged. The question has changed from "What was the original compositional gradient of the Asteroid Belt?" to "What was the original compositional gradient of small…
Our knowledge of main-belt comets (MBCs), which exhibit comet-like activity likely due to the sublimation of volatile ices, yet orbit in the main asteroid belt, has increased greatly since the discovery of the first known MBC, 133P/Elst-Pizarro, in 1996, and their recognition as a new class of solar system objects after the discovery of two more MBCs in 2005. I review work that has been done over the last 10 years to improve our understanding of these enigmatic objects, including the development of systematic discovery methods and diagnostics for distinguishing MBCs from disrupted asteroids (w…
The cumulative effects of weak resonant and secular perturbations by the major planets produce chaotic behavior of asteroids on long timescales. Dynamical chaos is the dominant loss mechanism for asteroids with diameters D > 10 km in the current asteroid belt. In a numerical analysis of the long term evolution of test particles in the main asteroid belt region, we find that the dynamical loss history of test particles from this region is well described with a logarithmic decay law. In our simulations the loss rate function that is established at t = 1 My persists with little deviation to at le…
Differentiated asteroids are rare in the main asteroid belt despite evidence for ~100 distinct differentiated bodies in the meteorite record. We have sought to understand why so few main-belt asteroids differentiated and where those differentiated bodies or fragments reside. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to search for a needle in a haystack we identify spectral A-type asteroid candidates, olivine-dominated asteroids that may represent mantle material of differentiated bodies. We have performed a near-infrared spectral survey with SpeX on the NASA IRTF and FIRE on the Magellan Teles…
Gaia Data Release 2 includes observational data for 14,099 pre-selected asteroids. From the sparsely sampled G band photometry, we derive lower-limit lightcurve amplitudes for 11,665 main belt asteroids in order to provide constraints on the distribution of shapes in the asteroid main belt. Assuming a triaxial shape model for each asteroid, defined through the axial aspect ratios a > b and b=c, we find an average b/a=0.80+-0.04 for the ensemble, which is in agreement with previous results. By combining the Gaia data with asteroid properties from the literature, we investigate possible correlat…
Containing only a few percent the mass of the moon, the current asteroid belt is around three to four orders of magnitude smaller that its primordial mass inferred from disk models. Yet dynamical studies have shown that the asteroid belt could not have been depleted by more than about an order of magnitude over the past ~4 Gyr. The remainder of the mass loss must have taken place during an earlier phase of the solar system's evolution. An orbital instability in the outer solar system occurring during the process of terrestrial planet formation can reproduce the broad characteristics of the inn…
Reproducing the large Earth/Mars mass ratio requires a strong mass depletion in solids within the protoplanetary disk between 1 and 3 AU. The Grand Tack model invokes a specific migration history of the giant planets to remove most of the mass initially beyond 1 AU and to dynamically excite the asteroid belt. However, one could also invoke a steep density gradient created by inward drift and pile-up of small particles induced by gas-drag, as has been proposed to explain the formation of close-in super Earths. Here we show that the asteroid belt's orbital excitation provides a crucial constrain…
The asteroid belt is characterized by an extreme low total mass of material on dynamically excited orbits. The Nice Model explains many peculiar qualities of the solar system, including the belt's excited state, by invoking an orbital instability between the outer planets. However, previous studies of the Nice Model's effect on the belt's structure struggle to reproduce the innermost asteroids' orbital inclination distribution. Here, we show how the final phase of giant planet migration sculpts the asteroid belt, in particular its inclination distribution. As interactions with leftover planete…
The near-Earth asteroid population suggests the existence of an inner Main Belt source of asteroids that belongs to the spectroscopic X-complex and has moderate albedos. The identification of such a source has been lacking so far. We argue that the most probable source is one or more collisional asteroid families that escaped discovery up to now. We apply a novel method to search for asteroid families in the inner Main Belt population of asteroids belonging to the X-complex with moderate albedo. Instead of searching for asteroid clusters in orbital elements space, which could be severely dispe…
The mysterious solar system object 133P/(7968) Elst-Pizarro is dynamically asteroidal, yet displays recurrent comet-like dust emission. Two scenarios were hypothesized to explain this unusual behavior: (1) 133P is a classical comet from the outer solar system that has evolved onto a main-belt orbit, or (2) 133P is a dynamically ordinary main-belt asteroid on which subsurface ice has recently been exposed. If (1) is correct, the expected rarity of a dynamical transition onto an asteroidal orbit implies that 133P could be alone in the main belt. In contrast, if (2) is correct, other icy main-bel…
The asteroid belt is an open window on the history of the Solar System, as it preserves records of both its formation process and its secular evolution. The progenitors of the present-day asteroids formed in the Solar Nebula almost contemporary to the giant planets. The actual process producing the first generation of asteroids is uncertain, strongly depending on the physical characteristics of the Solar Nebula, and the different scenarios produce very diverse initial size-frequency distributions. In this work we investigate the implications of the formation of Jupiter, plausibly the first gia…
We present the discovery of activity emanating from main-belt asteroid 2015 FW412, a finding stemming from the Citizen Science project Active Asteroids, a NASA Partner program. We identified a pronounced tail originating from 2015 FW412 and oriented in the anti-motion direction in archival Blanco 4-m (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile) Dark Energy Camera (DECam) images from UT 2015 April 13, 18, 19, 21 and 22. Activity occurred near perihelion, consistent with the main-belt comets (MBCs), an active asteroid subset known for sublimation-driven activity in the main asteroid belt; th…
For the first time, spectral signs of subtle coma activity were observed simultaneously on four main-belt primitive asteroids (145) Adeona, (704) Interamnia, (779) Nina, and (1474) Beira around their perihelion distances in September 2012, which were interpreted as manifestations of the sublimation of H2O ice in/under the surface matter (Busarev et al., 2015a, 2015b). We confirm the phenomenon for Nina when it approached perihelion in September 2016. At the same time, based on results of spectral observations of near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu (Vilas, 2008) being a target of Japan's Hayabus…
A determination of the dynamical evolution of the asteroid belt is difficult because the asteroid belt has evolved since the time of asteroid formation through mechanisms that include: (1) catastrophic collisions, (2) rotational disruption, (3) chaotic orbital evolution and (4) orbital evolution driven by Yarkovsky radiation forces. The timescales of these loss mechanisms are uncertain and there is a need for more observational constraints. In the inner main belt, the mean size of the non-family asteroids increases with increasing inclination. Here, we use that observation to show that all inn…
The size distribution of small asteroids in the Main Belt is assumed to be determined by an equilibrium between the creation of new bodies out of the impact debris of larger asteroids and the destruction of small asteroids by collisions with smaller projectiles. However, for a diameter less than 6 km we find that YORP-induced rotational disruption significantly contributes to the erosion even exceeding the effects of collisional fragmentation. Including this additional grinding mechanism in a collision evolution model for the asteroid belt, we generate size-frequency distributions from either …
It has been hypothesized that the impactors that created the majority of the observable craters on the ancient lunar highlands were derived from the main asteroid belt in such a way that preserved their size-frequency distribution. A more limited version of this hypothesis, dubbed the E-belt hypothesis, postulates that a destabilized contiguous inner extension of the main asteroid belt produced a bombardment limited to those craters younger than Nectaris basin. We investigate these hypotheses with a Monte Carlo code called the Cratered Terrain Evolution Model (CTEM). We find that matching the …
V-type asteroids are associated with basaltic composition, and are supposed to be fragments of crust of differentiated objects. Most V-type asteroids in the main belt are found in the inner main belt, and are either current members of the Vesta dynamical family (Vestoids), or past members that drifted away. However, several V-type photometric candidates have been recently identified in the central and outer main belt. The origin of this large population of V-type objects is not well understood. Since it seems unlikely that Vestoids crossing the 3J:-1A mean-motion resonance with Jupiter could a…
We present an analysis of the albedo properties of main belt asteroids detected by the All-Sky Survey of the infrared satellite AKARI. The characteristics of 5120 asteroids detected by the survey, including their sizes and albedos, were cataloged in the Asteroid Catalog Using AKARI (AcuA). Size and albedo measurements were based on the Standard Thermal Model, using inputs of infrared fluxes and absolute magnitudes. Main belt asteroids, which account for 4722 of the 5120 AcuA asteroids, have semimajor axes of 2.06 to 3.27 AU. AcuA provides a complete data set of all main belt asteroids brighter…
V-type asteroids are a taxonomic class whose surface is associated to a basaltic composition. The only known source of V-type asteroids in the Main Asteroid Belt is (4) Vesta, that is located in the inner part of the belt. However, many V-type asteroids cannot be dynamically linked to Vesta., in particular, those asteroids located in the middle and outer parts of the Belt. Previous works have failed to find mechanisms to transport V-type asteroids from the inner to the middle and outer belt. In this work we propose a dynamical mechanism that could have acted on primordial asteroid families. We…
We perform statistical wavelet analysis of the Main Belt asteroids, seeking statistically significant asteroid families. The goal is to test the new wavelet analysis algorithm and to compare its results with more traditional methods like the hierarchic clustering. We first consider several 1D distributions for various physical and orbital parameters of asteroids. Then we consider three bivariate distributions for the three orbital parameters (a,e,i) taken pairwisely. The full 3D analysis of this space is not available here, but based on the 2D results we perform a disentangling of overlapped 2…
Most main-belt asteroids are primitive rock and metal bodies in orbit about the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Disruption, through high velocity collisions or rotational spin-up, is believed to be the primary mechanism for the production and destruction of small asteroids and a contributor to dust in the Sun's Zodiacal cloud, while analogous collisions around other stars feed dust to their debris disks. Unfortunately, direct evidence about the mechanism or rate of disruption is lacking, owing to the rarity of events. Here we present observations of P/2010 A2, a previously unknown inner-belt ast…
Asteroids are classified as tiny and light objects in the solar system, however some of them possess orbiting moons. According to surveys, 15% of near-earth asteroids have moons. The Electrical Discharge effect provides a new model that describes the formation of single, binary, and triple asteroids influenced by solar magnetic activity. In further studies, collected data was drawn from the aggregation diagram of asteroids based on their average distance from the sun according to various databases, catalogs and spacecraft. The results show that, in areas where solar magnetic activity is high, …
Investigations of the main asteroid belt and efforts to constrain that population's physical characteristics involve the daunting task of studying hundreds of thousands of small bodies. Taxonomic systems are routinely employed to study the large scale nature of the asteroid belt because they utilize common observational parameters, but asteroid taxonomies only define broadly observable properties and are not compositionally diagnostic (Tholen, 1984; Carvano et al., 2010, Hasselmann et al., 2012). This work builds upon the results of Hardersen et al. (2014, 2015), which has the goal of constrai…
We have observed the lightcurves of 13 V-type asteroids ((1933) Tinchen, (2011) Veteraniya, (2508) Alupka, (3657) Ermolova, (3900) Knezevic, (4005) Dyagilev, (4383) Suruga, (4434) Nikulin, (4796) Lewis, (6331) 1992 $\mathrm{FZ_{1}}$, (8645) 1998 TN, (10285) Renemichelsen, and (10320) Reiland). Using these observations we determined the rotational rates of the asteroids, with the exception of Nikulin and Renemichelsen. The distribution of rotational rates of 59 V-type asteroids in the inner main belt, including 29 members of the Vesta family that are regarded as ejecta from the asteroid (4) Ves…
Results of photometric observations of a small sample of selected Main Belt asteroids are presented. The obtained measurements can be used to achieve a better calibration of the asteroid photometric system $(H, G_1, G_2)$ adopted by the IAU, and to make comparisons with best-fit curves that can be obtained using different photometric systems. The new data have been obtained as a first feasibility study of a more extensive project planned for the future, aimed at obtaining a reliable calibration of possible relations between some parameters characterizing the phase-magnitude curves and the geom…
The orbital structure of the asteroid belt holds a record of the Solar System's dynamical history. The current belt only contains ${\rm \sim 10^{-3}}$ Earth masses yet the asteroids' orbits are dynamically excited, with a large spread in eccentricity and inclination. In the context of models of terrestrial planet formation, the belt may have been excited by Jupiter's orbital migration. The terrestrial planets can also be reproduced without invoking a migrating Jupiter; however, as it requires a severe mass deficit beyond Earth's orbit, this model systematically under-excites the asteroid belt.…
In this work we aim to constrain the slope of the size distribution of main-belt asteroids, at their primordial state. To do so we turn out attention to the part of the main asteroid belt between 2.82 and 2.96~AU, the so-called "pristine zone", which has a low number density of asteroids and few, well separated asteroid families. Exploiting these unique characteristics, and using a modified version of the hierarchical clustering method we are able to remove the majority of asteroid family members from the region. The remaining, background asteroids should be of primordial origin, as the strong…
We present a method for calculating precise distances to asteroids using only two nights of data from a single location --- far too little for an orbit --- by exploiting the angular reflex motion of the asteroids due to Earth's axial rotation. We refer to this as the rotational reflex velocity method. While the concept is simple and well-known, it has not been previously exploited for surveys of main-belt asteroids. We offer a mathematical development, estimates of the errors of the approximation, and a demonstration using a sample of 197 asteroids observed for two nights with a small, 0.9-met…
Centaurs are objects whose orbits are found between those of the giant planets. They are supposed to originate mainly from the TransNeptunian objects, and they are among the sources of NearEarth Objects.TransNeptunian Objects (TNOs) cross Neptune's orbit and produce the Centaurs. We investigate their interactions with main belt asteroids to determine if chaotic scattering caused by close encounters and impacts by these bodies may have played a role in the dynamical evolution of the main belt. We find that Centaurs and TNOs that reach the inner Solar System can modify the orbits of main belt as…
Dynamical mass estimates for the main asteroid belt and the trans-Neptunian Kuiper belt have been found from their gravitational influence on the motion of planets. Discrete rotating models consisting of moving material points have been used to model the total attraction from small or as yet undetected bodies of the belts. The masses of the model belts have been included in the set of parameters being refined and determined and have been obtained by processing more than 800 thousand modern positional observations of planets and spacecraft. We have processed the observations and determined the …
In this work, we construct a new model for the collisional evolution of the main asteroid belt. Our goals are to test the scaling law of Benz and Asphaug (1999) and ascertain if it can be used for the whole belt. We want to find initial size-frequency distributions (SFDs) for the considered six parts of the belt (inner, middle, 'pristine', outer, Cybele zone, high-inclination region) and to verify if the number of synthetic asteroid families created during the simulation matches the number of observed families as well. We used new observational data from the WISE satellite (Masiero et al., 201…
Multi-epoch Spitzer Space Telescope 24 micron data is utilized from the MIPSGAL and Taurus Legacy surveys to detect asteroids based on their relative motion. These infrared detections are matched to known asteroids and rotationally averaged diameters and albedos are derived using the Near Earth Asteroid Model (NEATM) in conjunction with Monte Carlo simulations for 1835 asteroids ranging in size from 0.2 to 143.6 km. A small subsample of these objects was also detected by IRAS or MSX and the single wavelength albedo and diameter fits derived from this data are within 5% of the IRAS and/or MSX d…
We describe digital tracking, a method for asteroid searches that greatly increases the sensitivity of a telescope to faint unknown asteroids. It has been previously used to detect faint Kuiper Belt objects using the Hubble Space Telescope and large ground-based instruments, and to find a small, fast-moving asteroid during a close approach to Earth. We complement this earlier work by developing digital tracking methodology for detecting asteroids using large-format CCD imagers. We demonstrate that the technique enables the ground-based detection of large numbers of new faint asteroids. Our met…
We use the current orbital structure of large (>50km) asteroids in the main asteroid belt to constrain the evolution of the giant planets when they migrated from their primordial orbits to their current ones. Minton & Malhotra (2009) showed that the orbital distribution of large asteroids in the main belt can be reproduced by an exponentially-decaying migration of the giant planets on a time scale of tau ~ 0.5My. However, self-consistent numerical simulations show that the planetesimal-driven migration of the giant planets is inconsistent with an exponential change in their semi major axes on …
Low-albedo asteroids preserve a record of the primordial solar system planetesimals and the conditions in which the solar nebula was active. However, the origin and evolution of these asteroids are not well-constrained. Here we measured visible and near-infrared (0.5 - 4.0 microns) spectra of low-albedo asteroids in the mid-outer main belt. We show that numerous large (d > 100 km) and dark (geometric albedo < 0.09) asteroids exterior to the dwarf planet Ceres' orbit share the same spectral features, and presumably compositions, as Ceres. We also developed a thermal evolution model that demonst…
Most Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) meteorites (analogs to V-type asteroids) are thought to originate from asteroid (4) Vesta. However, some HEDs show distinct oxygen isotope ratios and therefore are thought to originate from other asteroids. In this study, we try to identify asteroids that may represent parent bodies of those mismatching HEDs. In particular, the origin of the anomalous Bunburra Rockhole meteorite was traced back to the inner main asteroid belt, showing that there might be asteroids that are not genetically linked to the asteroid (4) Vesta (the main source of V-type asteroi…
Chondrules are millimeter-sized spherules that dominate primitive meteorites (chondrites) originating from the asteroid belt. The incorporation of chondrules into asteroidal bodies must be an important step in planet formation, but the mechanism is not understood. We show that the main growth of asteroids can result from gas-drag-assisted accretion of chondrules. The largest planetesimals of a population with a characteristic radius of 100 km undergo run-away accretion of chondrules within ~3 Myr, forming planetary embryos up to Mars sizes along with smaller asteroids whose size distribution m…
This work focuses on the study of the aqueous alteration process which acted in the main belt and produced hydrated minerals on the altered asteroids. The aqueous alteration is particularly important for unraveling the processes occurring during the earliest times of the Solar System history, as it can give information both on the asteroids thermal evolution and on the localization of water sources in the asteroid belt. We present new spectral observations in the visible region of 80 asteroids belonging to the primitive classes C, G, F, B and P. We combine the present observations with the vis…
The asteroid belt is the leftover of the original planetesimal population in the inner solar system. However, currently the asteroids have orbits with all possible values of eccentricities and inclinations compatible with long-term dynamical stability, whereas the initial planetesimal orbits should have been quasi-circular and almost co-planar. The total mass in the asteroid population is a small fraction of that existing primordially. Also, asteroids with different chemical/mineralogical properties are not ranked in an orderly manner with mean heliocentric distance as one could expect from th…
It is well known that some Main Belt asteroids show comet-like features. A representative example is the first known Main Belt comet 133P/(7968) Elst-Pizarro. If the mechanisms causing this activity are too weak to develop visually evident comae or tails, the objects stay unnoticed. We are presenting a novel way to search for active asteroids, based on looking for objects with deviations from their expected brightnesses in a database. Just by using the MPCAT-OBS Observation Archive we have found five new candidate objects that possibly show a type of comet-like activity, and the already known …
We calculate the eccentricity excitation of asteroids produced by the sweeping $ν_6$ secular resonance during the epoch of planetesimal-driven giant planet migration in the early history of the solar system. We derive analytical expressions for the magnitude of the eccentricity change and its dependence on the sweep rate and on planetary parameters; the $ν_6$ sweeping leads to either an increase or a decrease of eccentricity depending on an asteroid's initial orbit. Based on the slowest rate of $ν_6$ sweeping that allows a remnant asteroid belt to survive, we derive a lower limit on Saturn's m…
The intra-night trajectories of asteroids can be approximated by straight lines, and so are their intra-night detections. Therefore, the Hough transform, a line detecting algorithm, can be used to connect the line-up detections to find asteroids. We applied this algorithm to a high-cadence Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) observation, which was originally designed to collect asteroid light curves for rotation period measurements (Chang et al., 2019). The algorithm recovered most of the known asteroids in the observing fields and, moreover, discovered 3574 new asteroids with magnitude mainly of 21.5 < w_p1 <…
The region where the main asteroid belt is now located may have started empty, to become populated early in the history of the Solar system with material scattered outward by the terrestrial planets and inward by the giant planets. These dynamical pathways toward the main belt may still be active today. Here, we present results from a data mining experiment aimed at singling out present-day members of the main asteroid belt that may have reached the belt during the last few hundred years. Probable newcomers include 2003 BM1, 2007 RS62, 457175 (2008 GO98), 2010 BG18, 2010 JC58, 2010 JV52, 2010 …
V-type asteroids in the inner Main Belt (a < 2.5 AU) and the HED meteorites are thought to be genetically related to one another as collisional fragments from the surface of the large basaltic asteroid 4 Vesta. We investigate this relationship by comparing the near-infrared (0.7-2.5 micron) spectra of 39 V-type asteroids to laboratory spectra of HED meteorites. The central wavelengths and areas spanned by the 1 and 2 micron pyroxene-olivine absorption bands that are characteristic of planetary basalts are measured for both the asteroidal and meteoritic data. The band centers are shown to be we…
With the growing numbers of asteroids being discovered, identifying an observationally complete sample is essential for statistical analyses and for informing theoretical models of the dynamical evolution of the solar system. We present an easily implemented method of estimating the empirical observational completeness in absolute magnitude, H_lim, as a function of semi-major axis. Our method requires fewer assumptions and decisions to be made in its application, making results more transportable and reproducible amongst studies that implement it, as well as scalable to much larger datasets of…
