2,247 research outputs found
Categorization of asteroids in the near-infrared
No full textThesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42).This work presents the DeMeo taxonomy, an asteroid taxonomy with 24 classes based on Principal Component Analysis of spectral data over the visible and near-infrared wavelengths, specifically the 0.45 to 2.45 micron range. Principal Component Analysis was used by both Tholen (1984) and Bus (1999) to create taxonomies on visible data. There is no pre-existing taxonomic system for the entire suite of asteroid characteristics because only in the current decade has spectral data collection become available in the near-infrared for asteroids down to relatively faint (V= 17) limiting magnitudes. (Rayner et al. 2003) With a larger data range, which includes important absorption features at one and two microns suggesting the presence of minerals, there is a need for an extended system to encompass this range of information. In this work we explain the process of creating the taxonomy, the method for finding an object's taxonomic class under this system, and present spectral types for the 365 objects that were used to create the system.by Francesca E. DeMeo.S.M
Asteroid polarimetry
No full textThe application of the polarimetric technique to asteroid studies progressed significantly during the last decade. The most interesting results were the discovery of asteroids with peculiar polarimetric properties, new findings on wavelength dependence of polarization, and some improvements in the polarimetric method of albedo determination. We review instruments that have been and are currently used for asteroid optical polarimetry and summarize the main results of observational surveys. Recent advances in theoretical and laboratory modeling of polarization phase effects and their implications are discussed. We focus on the most important open questions and identify promising avenues for future polarimetric investigations. <P /
Mars encounters cause fresh surfaces on some near-Earth asteroids
No full textAll airless bodies are subject to the space environment, and spectral differences between asteroids and meteorites suggest many asteroids become weathered on very short (<1 Myr) timescales. The spectra of some asteroids, particularly Q-types, indicate surfaces that appear young and fresh, implying they have been recently been exposed. Previous work found that Earth encounters were the dominant freshening mechanism and could be responsible for all near-Earth object (NEO) Q-types. In this work we increase the known NEO Q-type sample of by a factor of three. We present the orbital distributions of 64 Q-type near-Earth asteroids, and seek to determine the dominant mechanisms for refreshing their surfaces. Our sample reveals two important results: (i) the relatively steady fraction of Q-types with increasing semi-major axis and (ii) the existence of Q-type near-Earth asteroids with Minimum Orbit Intersection Distances (MOID) that do not have orbit solutions that cross Earth. Both of these are evidence that Earth-crossing is not the only scenario by which NEO Q-types are freshened. The high Earth-MOID asteroids represent 10% of the Q-type population and all are in Amor orbits. While surface refreshing could also be caused by Main Belt collisions or mass shedding from YORP spinup, all high Earth-MOID Q-types have the possibility of encounters with Mars indicating Mars could be responsible for a significant fraction of NEOs with fresh surfaces.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 6920422)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant 09-NEOO009-0001)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0506716
Global Scale Impacts
No full textGlobal scale impacts modify the physical or thermal state of a substantial fraction of a target asteroid. Specific effects include accretion, family formation, reshaping, mixing and layering, shock and frictional heating, fragmentation, material compaction, dilatation, stripping of mantle and crust, and seismic degradation. Deciphering the complicated record of global scale impacts, in asteroids and meteorites, will lead us to understand the original planet-forming process and its resultant populations, and their evolution in time as collisions became faster and fewer. We provide a brief overview of these ideas, and an introduction to models
"The love that made hell, paradise." Ouida re-writing the Paolo and Francesca theme in Held in Bondage
No full textThe bestselling Victorian author Ouida reveals in her novels, and, in particular, Held in Bondage, an extraordinary knowledge od Dante, by using characters and themes from the Commedia. The Paolo and Francesca theme actually constitutes part of the plot of the novel and is to be found in many of her other works, short stories and non-fiction writing
HERStory Makers 2023: Francesca Fotheringham
No full textFrancesca Fotheringham is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh studying educational psychology with a focus on neurodiversity. She took part in HERStory Makers 2023.What is HERStory Makers?HERStory Makers is a social media competition for female-identifying early career researchers to share their research, their career journeys, and to inspire the next generation. Winners are selected by public vote. HERStory Makers is also part of EXPLORATHON, Scotland's contribution to European Researchers' Night.In 2022-23, EXPLORATHON Francescasupported by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/X020762/1].Author contributions to contentFrancesca conceived, planned, and recorded the video content. Kirsty Ross edited the video content to insert HERStory Maker credits, added subtitles, and reduce video length to below Twitter/X limit of 2 mins and 20 secs.</p
Modeling asteroid collisions and impact processes
No full textAs a complement to experimental and theoretical approaches, numerical modeling has become an important component to study asteroid collisions and impact processes. In the last decade, there have been significant advances in both computational resources and numerical methods. We discuss the present state-of-the-art numerical methods and material models used in "shock physics codes" to simulate impacts and collisions and give some examples of those codes. Finally, recent modeling studies are presented, focussing on the effects of various material properties and target structures on the outcome of a collision
Collisional Formation and Modeling of Asteroid Families
No full textIn the last decade, thanks to the development of sophisticated numerical codes, major breakthroughs have been achieved in our understanding of the formation of asteroid families by catastrophic disruption of large parent bodies. In this review, we describe numerical simulations of asteroid collisions that reproduced the main properties of families, accounting for both the
fragmentation of an asteroid at the time of impact and the subsequent gravitational interactions of the generated fragments. The simulations demonstrate that the catastrophic disruption of bodies larger than a few hundred meters in diameter leads to the formation of large aggregates
due to gravitational reaccumulation of smaller fragments, which helps explain the presence of large members within asteroid families. Thus, for the first time, numerical simulations successfully reproduced the sizes and ejection velocities of members of representative families. Moreover, the simulations provide constraints on the family dynamical histories and on the possible internal structure of family members and their parent bodies
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