Bibcode
Morate, D.; de León, J.
Referencia bibliográfica
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #47, #213.21
Fecha de publicación:
11
2015
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
Asteroid families are formed by the fragments produced by the disruption
of a common parent body (Bendjoya & Zappalà 2002). Primitive
asteroids in the solar system are believed to have undergone less
thermal processing than the S-complex asteroids. Thus, study of
primitive asteroid families provides information about the solar system
formation period. The Erigone collisional family, together with other
three families (Polana, Clarissa and Sulamitis), are believed to be the
origin of the two primitive Near-Earth asteroids that are the main
targets of the NASA’s OSIRIS-REx ((101955) Bennu) and JAXA’s
Hayabusa 2 ((162173) 1999 JU3) missions (Campins et al. 2010; Campins et
al. 2013; Lauretta et al. 2010; Tsuda et al. 2013). These spacecrafts
will visit the asteroids, and a sample of their surface material will be
returned to Earth. Understanding of the families that are considered
potential sources will enhance the scientific return of the missions.
The main goal of the work presented here is to characterize the Erigone
collisional family. Asteroid (163) Erigone has been classified as a
primitive object (Bus 1999; Bus & Binzel 2002), and we expect the
members of this family to be consistent with the spectral type of the
parent body. We have obtained visible spectra (0.5-0.9 μm) for 101
members of the Erigone family, using the OSIRIS instrument at the 10.4m
Gran Telescopio Canarias. We performed a taxonomical classification of
these asteroids, finding that the number of primitive objects in our
sample is in agreement with the hypothesis of a common parent body. In
addition, we have found a significant fraction of asteroids in our
sample that present evidences of aqueous alteration. Study of aqueous
alterations is important, as it can give information on the heating
processes of the early Solar System, and for the associated
astrobiological implications (it has been suggested that the
Earth’s present water supply was brought here by asteroids,
instead of comets, in opposition to previous explanations (Morbidelli et
al. 2000).