Near Earth Asteroid (4015) Wilson-Harrington: a Possible Source of Meteorites from the Polana or the Themis Family

Campins, H.; Licandro, J.
Referencia bibliográfica

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #47, #106.05

Fecha de publicación:
11
2015
Número de autores
2
Número de autores del IAC
1
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
Near-Earth asteroid (4015) Wilson-Harrington is particularly interesting for a number of reasons. It has displayed cometary activity, hence its designation as comet 107P, and since Wilson-Harrington likely originated in the main asteroid belt (Bottke at al. 2002a), it could also be called a Main-belt Comet. This object has been linked to fireballs capable of producing recoverable meteorites (Campins and Swindle 1998), and it is a potential target of spacecraft missions. We have carried out spectroscopic and dynamical studies of Wilson-Harrington and we narrow its likely origin to either the Polana or the Themis asteroid families. We present new visible and near-infrared spectra of Wilson-Harrington that show significant similarities with members of the Themis and Polana families. These spectral parallels are consistent with dynamical arguments that connect the current orbit of Wilson-Harrington with each of these two families. However, it is not clear at this time which of the families is the more likely origin for Wilson-Harrington. Our work also has implications on sources of primitive meteorites.