Shapes, Cratering History, and Densities of the Largest Main-Belt Asteroids

Seti Institute, Mountain View CA

Investigators

Abstract

Moons have been found orbiting some of the largest asteroids in the main asteroid belt, located between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. These investigators have obtained telescope time to observe thirty-six large asteroids in the main asteroid belt with an instrument that will provide very high resolution observations of these asteroids. Their shapes, sizes, any moons that are present, and information about the asteroids' compositions will be uncovered. All of this information will give the investigators clues about how these multiple-asteroid systems formed and, further, how the major planets in our Solar System formed. This project serves the national interest by advancing our scientific understanding of how our Solar System formed and changed within its lifetime. The investigators will tell the story of their research to both students and the general public through undergraduate student research programs, press releases, and social media outlets. The PI will also develop movies for planetariums through the California Academy of Sciences. This systematic study will use adaptive optics instrumentation to refine the multiplicity rate of larger main-belt asteroids and will search for a relationship between an asteroid's multiplicity and its composition. High angular resolution allows the shape models of these asteroids to be measured to unprecedented accuracy. A study of the orbits of these moons (satellites) will constrain the bulk density of the primary asteroid and provide clues about the composition and distribution of its material, supporting studies addressing the formation of these multiple-asteroid systems in the Solar System.