Bibcode
Licandro, J.; Popescu, M.; Morate, D.; de León, J.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 600, id.A126, 9 pp.
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4
2017
Journal
Citations
22
Refereed citations
22
Description
Context. Basaltic asteroids (spectrally classified as V-types) are
believed to be fragments of large differentiated bodies. The majority of
them are found in the inner part of the asteroid belt, and are current
or past members of the Vesta family. Recently, some V-type asteroids
have been discovered far from the Vesta family supporting the hypothesis
of the presence of multiple basaltic asteroids in the early solar
system. The discovery of basaltic asteroids in the outer belt challenged
the models of the radial extent and the variability of the temperature
distribution in the early solar system. Aims: We aim to identify
new basaltic V-type asteroids using near-infrared colors of 40 000
asteroids observed by the VHS-VISTA survey and compiled in the MOVIS-C
catalogue. We also want to study their near-infrared colors and to study
the near-infrared color distribution of the Vesta dynamical family. Methods: We performed a search in the MOVIS-C catalogue of all the
asteroids with (Y-J) and (J-Ks) in the range (Y-J) ≥ 0.5 and (J-Ks)
≤ 0.3, associated with V-type asteroids, and studied their color
distribution. We have also analyzed the near-infrared color distribution
of 273 asteroid members of the Vesta family and compared them with the
albedo and visible colors from WISE and SDSS data. We determined the
fraction of V-type asteroids in the family. Results: We found 477
V-type candidates in MOVIS-C, 244 of them outside the Vesta dynamical
family. We identified 19 V-type asteroids beyond the 3:1 mean motion
resonance, 6 of them in the outer main belt, and 16 V-types in the inner
main belt with proper inclination ip ≤ 3.0°, well
below the inclination of the Vesta family. We computed that 85% of the
members of the Vesta dynamical family are V-type asteroids, and only
1-2% are primitive class asteroids and unlikely members of the family.
Conclusions: This work almost doubles the sample of basaltic
asteroid candidates in regions outside the Vesta family. Spectroscopic
studies in the near-infrared and dynamical studies are needed to confirm
their basaltic composition and to determine their origin.
Related projects
Minor Bodies of the Solar System
This project studies the physical and compositional properties of the so-called minor bodies of the Solar System, that includes asteroids, icy objects, and comets. Of special interest are the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs), including those considered the most distant objects detected so far (Extreme-TNOs or ETNOs); the comets and the comet-asteroid
Julia de
León Cruz