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V-type asteroid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The spectra of the V-type asteroids or Vestoids are similar to that of 4 Vesta, by far the largest asteroid in this class (hence the name).
A large proportion have orbital elements similar to those of 4 Vesta, either close enough to be part of the Vesta family, or having similar eccentricities and inclinations but with a semi-major axis lying between about 2.18 AU and the 3:1 Kirkwood gap at 2.50 AU. This suggests that most or all of them originated as fragments of Vesta's crust, possibly blasted out by a single very large impact at some point in its history. The enormous southern-hemisphere crater on Vesta is the prime candidate for the impact site [1].
The V-type asteroids are moderately bright, and rather similar to the more common S-type, which are also made up of stony irons and ordinary chondrites. This rather rare type of asteroid contains more pyroxene than the S-type.
The electromagnetic spectrum has a very strong absorption feature longward of 0.75 μm, another feature around 1 μm and is very red shortwards of 0.7 µm. The visible wavelength spectrum of the V-type asteroids (including 4 Vesta itself) is similar to the spectra of basaltic achondrite HED meteorites.
A J-type has been suggested for asteroids having a particularly strong 1 μm absorption band similar to diogenite meteorites [2], likely being derived from deeper parts of the crust of 4 Vesta.
The vast majority of V-type asteroids are members of the Vesta family along with Vesta itself. There are some Mars-crossers such as 9969 Braille, and some Near-Earth objects like 3908 Nyx.
There is also a scattered group of objects in the general vicinity of the Vesta family but not part of it. These include[3]:
- 809 Lundia Orbits within the Flora family region
- 956 Elisa
- 1459 Magnya Orbits in the outer main belt, too far from Vesta to be genetically related. May be the remains of a different ancient differentiated body that was shattered long ago.
- 2113 Ehrdni
- 2442 Corbett
- 2566 Kirghizia
- 2579 Spartacus — contains a significant portion of olivine, which may indicate origin deeper within Vesta than other V-types.
- 2640 Hallstrom
- 2653 Principia
- 2704 Julian Loewe
- 2763 Jeans
- 2795 Lepage
- 2851 Harbin
- 2912 Lapalma
- 3849 Incidentia
- 3850 Peltier Orbits within the Flora family region
- 3869 Norton
- 4188 Kitezh
- 4278 Harvey Orbits within the Flora family region
- 4434 Nikulin
- 4796 Lewis
- 4977 Rauthgundis
- 5379 Abehiroshi
- ^ S. J. Bus and R. P. Binzel (2002). "Phase II of the Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopy Survey: A feature-based taxonomy". Icarus 158: 146.
- ^ R. P. Binzel and S. Xu (1993). "Chips off of asteroid 4 Vesta: Evidence for the parent body of basaltic achondrite meteorites". Science 260: 186.
- ^ V. Carruba et al (2005). "On the V-type asteroids outside the Vesta family". Astronomy & Astrophysics 441: 819.
Vulcanoids · Near-Earth asteroids · Main belt · Jupiter Trojans · Centaurs · Damocloids · Comets · Trans-Neptunians (Kuiper belt • Scattered disc • Oort cloud)
For other objects and regions, see Asteroid groups and families, Binary asteroids, Asteroid moons and the Solar System.
For a complete listing, see List of asteroids. See also Pronunciation of asteroid names and Meanings of asteroid names.