Artículo
Physical properties and orbital stability of the Trojan asteroids
Fecha de publicación:
12/2008
Editorial:
Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science
Revista:
Icarus
ISSN:
0019-1035
Idioma:
Inglés
Tipo de recurso:
Artículo publicado
Clasificación temática:
Resumen
All the Trojan asteroids orbit about the Sun at roughly the same heliocentric distance as Jupiter. Differences in the observed visible reflection spectra range from neutral to red, with no ultra-red objects found so far. Given that the Trojan asteroids are collisionally evolved, a certain degree of variability is expected. Additionally, cosmic radiation and sublimation are important factors in modifying icy surfaces even at those large heliocentric distances. We search for correlations between physical and dynamical properties, we explore relationships between the following four quantities; the normalised visible reflectivity indexes (S), the absolute magnitudes, the observed albedos and the orbital stability of the Trojans. We present here visible spectroscopic spectra of 25 Trojans. This new data increase by a factor of about 5 the size of the sample of visible spectra of Jupiter Trojans on unstable orbits. The observations were carried out at the ESO-NTT telescope (3.5 m) at La Silla, Chile, the ING-WHT (4.2 m) and NOT (2.5 m) at Roque de los Muchachos observatory, La Palma, Spain. We have found a correlation between the size distribution and the orbital stability. The absolute-magnitude distribution of the Trojans in stable orbits is found to be bimodal, while the one of the unstable orbits is unimodal, with a slope similar to that of the small stable Trojans. This supports the hypothesis that the unstable objects are mainly byproducts
of physical collisions. The values of S of both the stable and the unstable Trojans are uniformly distributed over a wide range, from 0%/1000 Å to about 15%/1000 Å. The values for the stable Trojans tend to be slightly redder than the unstable ones, but no significant statistical difference is found.
Palabras clave:
Asteroids
,
Comets
,
Solar System Origin
Archivos asociados
Licencia
Identificadores
Colecciones
Articulos(IAFE)
Articulos de INST.DE ASTRONOMIA Y FISICA DEL ESPACIO(I)
Articulos de INST.DE ASTRONOMIA Y FISICA DEL ESPACIO(I)
Citación
Melita, Mario Daniel; Licandro, J.; Jones, D. C.; Williams, I. P.; Physical properties and orbital stability of the Trojan asteroids; Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science; Icarus; 195; 2; 12-2008; 686-697
Compartir
Altmétricas