Bibcode
Ziffer, Julie; Campins, H.; Fernández, Y. R.; Licandro, J.; Mothé-Diniz, T.; Hargrove, K. D.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #35.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.481
Advertised on:
10
2007
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We have started a near-infrared spectroscopic study of the Veritas
asteroid family. This family is of particular interest for several
reasons: 1) This 8.2 million-year-old family contains fresh fragments of
a primitive parent body (Nesvorney et al., 2005). 2) Interplanetary dust
from the Veritas collision makes up over 25% of interplanetary dust
particles (IDPs) in our collections and is thought to contribute over
7,000 tons of dust accreted by Earth each year (Nesvorny et al., 2006).
3) The Veritas parent body formed in the same region as the Themis
family (3.13 and 3.17 AU respectively) and likely out of similar nebular
condensates. 4) The Veritas parent body seems to have formed beyond the
frost line and some fragments may not have been entirely aqueously
processed, thereby retaining water-ice reservoirs for the age of the
Solar System (analogous to what has been proposed for the Themis family;
Hsieh and Jewitt, 2006). Although the visible spectra of Veritas members
hint at aqueous processing (DiMartino et al., 1997), none of Veritas
family asteroids have been studied in the near-infrared - the most
diagnostic region of the presence and type of hydrated silicates (e.g.,
Rivkin et al., 2002). Our main goals include: 1) spectroscopic
comparisons of Themis and Veritas families to further constrain asteroid
formation and space weathering processes in the outer-belt; 2) test
proposed models for the thermophysical evolution of primitive asteroid
parent bodies and their fragments (e.g.,Vilas and Sykes, 1996). This
study will observe 15 Veritas members over the next 2 years.
Observations start in November 2007.