Rotational properties of the Maria asteroid family
- Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, 120-749 Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, 776 Daedeokdae-ro, Yuseong-gu, 305-348 Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)
- Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 69978 (Israel)
- Akdeniz Universitesi, Fen Fakultesi, Dumlupinar Bulvari, Kampus, 07058 Antalya (Turkey)
- Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Ege, Bornova, 35100 Izmir (Turkey)
- Geneva Observatory, Rue de Vermont 37, 1202 Geneva (Switzerland)
- Chungbuk National University Observatory, 802-3 Euntan-ri, Jincheon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do (Korea, Republic of)
The Maria family is regarded as an old-type (∼3 ± 1 Gyr) asteroid family that has experienced substantial collisional and dynamical evolution in the main belt. It is located near the 3:1 Jupiter mean-motion resonance area that supplies near-Earth asteroids to the inner solar system. We carried out observations of Maria family asteroids during 134 nights from 2008 July to 2013 May and derived synodic rotational periods for 51 objects, including newly obtained periods of 34 asteroids. We found that there is a significant excess of fast and slow rotators in the observed rotation rate distribution. The one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test confirms that the spin rate distribution is not consistent with a Maxwellian at a 92% confidence level. From correlations among rotational periods, amplitudes of light curves, and sizes, we conclude that the rotational properties of Maria family asteroids have been changed considerably by non-gravitational forces such as the YORP effect. Using a light-curve inversion method, we successfully determined the pole orientations for 13 Maria members and found an excess of prograde versus retrograde spins with a ratio (N{sub p} /N{sub r} ) of 3. This implies that the retrograde rotators could have been ejected by the 3:1 resonance into the inner solar system since the formation of the Maria family. We estimate that approximately 37-75 Maria family asteroids larger than 1 km have entered near-Earth space every 100 Myr.
- OSTI ID:
- 22339996
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 147, Issue 3; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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