Landstreet

Chapter 6: Asteroids

Tue Jul 29 10:23:32 2003

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• slide1 ==> 6.1: Eccentricities of about 5000 asteroids as a function of orbital period. Note Kirkwood gaps.
• slide2 ==> 6.2: Numbers of asteroids with various orbital periods. Kirkwood gaps are again prominent.
• slide3 ==> 6.3: Reflected and radiated energy from reflective (A = 0.20, top) and non-reflective (A=0.05, bottom) asteroids
• slide4 ==> 6.4: Asteroid Gaspra (19 x 12 x 11 km) as viewed from Galileo probe. Smallest visible features about 100 km across.
• slide5 ==> 6.5: Asteroid Mathilde (about 56 km across), showing its huge crater. The asteroid is a black as coal (A = 0.03).
• slide6 ==> 6.6: Asteroid Eros, an extremely non-spherical body about 30 km long, viewed from NEAR-SHOEMAKER
• slide7 ==> 6.7: Images as NEAR landed on asteroid Eros. Top two are about 500 m across, bottom about 250 m.
• slide8 ==> 6.8: Two views of a rotating asteroid. Seen from the pole it varies little, but from the side big brightness changes are seen.
• slide9 ==> 6.9: Reflection spectra of a. NiFe, b. olivine, c. pyroxene, and d. anorthite.
• slide10 ==> 6.10: Reflection spectra of several bright asteroids, labelled by asteroid number.
• slide11 ==> 6.11: Comparison of reflection spectra of several asteroids to spectra of carbonaceous and ordinary chondritic meteorites.
• slide12 ==> 6.12: Variation of relative numbers of three asteroid superclasses with distance from the Sun.
• slide13 ==> 6.13: Evolution of an asteroid: a. formation, b. differentiated by heating, c. after some impacts, d. completely disrupted.