Taxonomy of Small Bodies

AS3141 Benda Kecil dalam Tata Surya

Prodi Astronomi 2007/2008
B. Dermawan
 Spectroscopy: history (1)
1929: Photographic Spectra
Visible spectrum of 0.39 0.47 m (Vesta;
Bobrovnikoff 1929)
1970: Spectrophotometry
Visible spectrum of 0.3 1.1 m (McCord et al. 1970;
Chapman et al. 1971)
Strong absorption bands in the UV and near 1 m
First rigorous asteroid taxonomy (Chapman et al.
1975) asteroid mineralogy
Mid-1980s: Spectrophotometry Surveys
Eight-Color Asteroid Survey (ECAS, Zellner et al.
1985)
~600 asteroids Tholen taxonomy (Tholen 1984)
 Spectroscopy: history (2)
Spectrograph: Spectroscopic survey
Low-albedo asteroid survey (115 asteroids; Sawyer
1991)
First Phase of Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopic
Survey (SMASSI: 316 asteroids; Xu et al. 1995)
Second Phase of Small Main-belt Asteroid
Spectroscopic Survey (SMASSII: 1447 asteroids; Bus
& Binzel 2002)
Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey
(S3OS2: ongoing >800 asteroids; Lazzaro et al. 2001)

Spectroscopy visible-wavelength spectroscopy

 Spectroscopy
Bus et al. 2002

Extraction of one-dimensional spectra

Preprocessing of the CCD images

Calibration of the extracted spectra

Normalization to a solar-analog star

 Bus & Binzel 2002

ECAS Colors &

SMASSII Spectra
 Objects Surface Material

Different
surface
material
on Vesta 0.506-m Fe2+ pyroxene
presence of Ca-rich
 Effects of Surface Properties
Phase reddening: reddening of reflectance spectra with
increased phase angle
NIR Spectrometer to Eros: slope 8-12% over phase angles
0-100
Space Weathering: darkening & reddening of asteroids
surface
e.g. Chapman 1996: Explaining the spectral mismatches
between asteroids and meteorites
Particle size
Particulate regolith on the surface
Temperature
120 K (Trojans) to >300 K (NEAs)
Shapes of spectral bands (olivines & pyroxenes) are sensitive
to temperature
 Taxonomy: methods
Asteroid classification
Bowell et al. 1978 Tholen & Barucci 1989
Data sets:
- ECAS (Zellner etl al. 1985)
- IRAS albedo (Veeder et al. 1989, Tedesco et al. 1992)
1. Tholen taxonomy (1984): spanning tree clustering
algorithm
2. Barucci et al. taxonomy (1987): G-mode analysis
3. Tedesco et al. taxonomy (1989): visual identification of
groupings in a parameter space (two asteroid colors &
IRAS albedo)
4. Howell et al taxonomy (1994): artificial neural network
Statistically significant boundaries exist between clusters of objects
 SMASSII Taxonomy: basics
Bus et al. 2002
Tholen taxonomy was utilized in an attempt to preserve the
historic structure and spirit of past asteroid taxonomies
Classes were defined solely on the presence (or absence) of
absorption features contained in the visible-wavelength
spectra
The classes were arranged in a way that reflects the spectral
continuum revealed by the SMASSII data
Different analytical and multivariate analysis technique were
used to properly parameterize the various spectral features.
Labels of some class were based on human judgment.
When possible, the sizes (scale-lengths) and boundaries of
the taxonomic classes were defined based on the spectral
variance observed in natural groupings among the asteroids.
 SMASSII Taxonomy: method
Parameterization
Principle Component Analysis (PCA)
Multivariate Analysis Techniques
Maps Multivariate data into a new space whose axes
are oriented in a way that best represents the datas
total variance
In principal component space:
- The first component (PC1): largest possible fraction
of the variance in the data set.
- PC2: the next largest fractions of the variance
Cluster together in groups that are well separated
in some parameter space
 Bus & Binzel 2002
SMASSII Taxonomy:
spectral slope
A. Extracted & calibrated spectrum
B. Smoothing spline fit
C. Linear least squares fit slope
parameter
D. Residual spectrum after division by
the slope function

ri 1.0 (i 0.55)
ri : The relative reflectance at each channel
I : The wavelength of the channel in microns
: The slope of the fitted line (unity at 0.55 m)
 Bus & Binzel 2002

SMASSII Taxonomy: PC
1. Spectra are essentially linear
or featureless
2. Spectra contain a 1-m
absorption feature

The two different loci corresponds to spectra

with and without a 1-m silicate absorption
feature

PC1 Slope remove

PC2 PC2
PC3 PC3
SMASSII Taxonomy: separating the spectra
Bus & Binzel 2002
SMASSII Taxonomy: S-, C-, X-complex spectra
Bus & Binzel 2002
SMASSII Taxonomy: comparison & distribution
Bus & Binzel 2002
Bus & Binzel 2002
SMASSII Taxonomy: Result Table
Bus & Binzel 2002
 SMASSII Taxonomy: description

Bus et al. 2002

 Contd
Bus et al. 2002
 SMASSII Taxonomy: drawbacks

Can be cumbersome for newly observed

asteroids
Allow for the classification of individual objects
The classification assigned to an asteroid is
only as good as the observational data
Variations in spectrum may change the
taxonomic label
 TNOs & Centaurs Taxonomy (1)
TNOs Centaurs

Lazzarin et al. 2003

TNOs & Centaurs Taxonomy (2)

Lazzarin et al. 2003

NEAs Taxonomy (1) Binzel et al. 2002
 Binzel et al. 2002

NEAs Taxonomy (2)

Binzel et al. 2002

 Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
NIR: ~1 4 m contains absorption bands that are
fundamental to studies of mineralogy (Gaffey et al. 1989)

Hodapp (2000): high-quality asteroid spectra out to 2.5 m

and beyond
Rayner et al. (1998): low- to medium-resolution NIR
spectrograph & imager (SpeX) in IRTF

o Data calibration is complicated

o Scaling telluric features a model of atmospheric
transmission (ATRAN, Lord 1992)
 Visible & NIR Spectroscopy

0.7 2.5 m: silicate minerals (pyroxenes,

olivines and plagioclase)
Absorption bands near 1 & 2 m
2.5 3.5 m: hydrated minerals (bound water
and structural OH)
Absorption bands centered near 3 m
SMASSII Taxonomy: spectra
Bus & Binzel 2002