Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Clark R. Chapman
Southwest Research Inst.
Boulder, Colorado, USA
e i
aq a
Main-Belt Asteroid Colors:
Thenand Now
Chapman (1971)
Hapke (1971)
Asteroid data 35 years ago
like TNO data today
Disputed clusters partly OK
Lessons Learned
Trends with a,e,i convincing
only after debiasing (~1975)
Matching colors/reflectance
spectra to mineralogy only
fair (space weathering, etc.)
Data from Gehrels (1970)
Burbine et al (2001) Today: abundant statistics,
Ivezic et al (2002)
hi-res spectra, good compos.
Colors for tens of thousands
Reflectance spectra: 1000s
Good correspondence of
taxonomy with meteorites
Relationship of NEAs to
main-belt asteroids clear
Families as catastrophic
collision products of (usually)
homogeneous parent bodies
NEA Colors
(Binzel et al. 2004)
TNOs
Bernstein et al. 2004
NEAs
NASA SDT 2003
Detailed Earth-based Studies
of Individual Objects (examples)
5145 Pholus 4 Vesta 4179 Toutatis
Polarization
Mukai et al. 1997
Mathilde
Geophysical Properties
Spins, shapes, satellites, masses, densities, strengths, interior structures
Most remote-sensing of surfaces reveals little about interior properties
Rapid spins = monolithic structure; do slow spins imply rubble piles?
Impact experiments, numerical modelling, scaling analysis
NEAR laser altimetry probes interior of Eros
NEAR Laser
Altimeter:
Eros
Emerging Continuum
ASTEROIDS COMETS
Under-dense, rubble piles, Active, fluffy, evolved
many volatile-rich (except bodies with complex
at surfaces), some non- geology (impact & non-
impact geology, many impact), easily split;
satellites; NEAs tidally precursor KBOs have
evolved satellites, interior oceans
Main-belt Comets (1)
Main-belt Comets (2)