Related papers: The Distribution of Basaltic Asteroids in the Main…

Vesta is the only currently identified asteroid for which we possess samples, which revealed us that the asteroid is differentiated and possesses a relatively thin basaltic crust that survived to the evolution of the asteroid belt and the…

We have carried out a search for Main Belt Asteroids (MBAs) co-orbiting with the large MBA Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Through improving the search criteria used in (Christou, 2000b) and numerical integrations of candidate coorbitals,…

We present revised near-infrared albedo fits of 2835 Main Belt asteroids observed by WISE/NEOWISE over the course of its fully cryogenic survey in 2010. These fits are derived from reflected-light near-infrared images taken simultaneously…

The Missing Mantle Problem refers to the apparent scarcity of olivine rich (A-type) asteroids in the main belt, despite expectations that such bodies should be common if differentiated parent bodies were widely disrupted. Conversely,…

The so-called Nysa-Polana complex of asteroids is a diverse and widespread group. It appears to be two overlapping families of different asteroid taxonomies: (44) Nysa is an E-type asteroid with the lowest number in the midst of a…

Mesosiderites are a type of stony-iron meteorites composed of a mixture of silicates and Fe-Ni metals. The mesosiderite silicates and metals are considered to have originated from the crust and metal core, respectively, of a differentiated…

Using albedos from WISE/NEOWISE to separate distinct albedo groups within the Main Belt asteroids, we apply the Hierarchical Clustering Method to these subpopulations and identify dynamically associated clusters of asteroids. While this…

We present initial results from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a four-band all-sky thermal infrared survey that produces data well suited to measuring the physical properties of asteroids, and the NEOWISE enhancement to the…

The Dawn mission confirms predictions that the asteroid 4 Vesta is differentiated with an iron-rich core, a silicate mantle and a basaltic crust, and confirms Vesta as the parent body of the HED meteorites. To better understand its early…

A bombardment of comets is thought to have occurred in the inner solar system as a result of a dynamical instability among the giant planets after gas disk dispersal. Vesta, the second largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt, likely…

In the framework of a 30-night spectroscopic survey of small near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) we present new results regarding the identification of olivine-rich objects. The following NEAs were classified as A-type using visible spectra…

We study the impactor flux and cratering on Ceres and Vesta caused by the collisional and dynamical evolution of the asteroid Main Belt. We develop a statistical code based on a well-tested model for the simultaneous evolution of the Main…

We report the observations of solar system objects during the 2015 campaign of the High cadence Transient Survey (HiTS). We found 5740 bodies (mostly Main Belt asteroids), 1203 of which were detected in different nights and in $g'$ and…

The classical theory of differentiation states that due to the heat generated by the decay of radioactive elements, some asteroids form an iron core, an olivine-rich mantle, and a crust. The collisional breakup of these differentiated…

NASA's Dawn spacecraft observations of asteroid (4) Vesta reveal a surface with the highest albedo and color variation of any asteroid we have observed so far. Terrains rich in low albedo dark material (DM) have been identified using Dawn…

We discuss optical colors of 10,592 asteroids with known orbits selected from a sample of 58,000 moving objects observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This is more than ten times larger sample that includes both orbital parameters…

Using 8m-10m class telescopes and their Adaptive Optics (AO) systems, we conducted a long-term adaptive optics campaign initiated in 2003 focusing on four binary asteroid systems: (130) Elektra, (283) Emma, (379) Huenna, and (3749) Balam.…

Bottke et al. (2007) linked the catastrophic formation of Baptistina Asteroid Family (BAF) to the K/T impact event. This linkage was based on dynamical and compositional evidence, which suggested the impactor had a composition similar to…

It is well known that some Main Belt asteroids show comet-like features. A representative example is the first known Main Belt comet 133P/(7968) Elst-Pizarro. If the mechanisms causing this activity are too weak to develop visually evident…

Dark asteroids with featureless neutral to red spectra are of particular interest due to their ability to potentially harbour primitive, hydrated, and possibly organic-rich material. These asteroids belong to the spectroscopic C-complex, to…