Related papers: The Heterogeneous Surface of Asteroid (16) Psyche
One of the most accurate models currently used to represent the gravity field of irregular bodies is the polyhedral approach. In this model, the mass of the body is assumed to be homogeneous, which may not be true for a real object. The…
(704) Interamnia is one of the largest asteroids that locates in the outer main-belt region, which may contain a large amount of water ice underneath its surface. We observe this asteroid using 8.2 m Subaru telescope at mid-infrared…
The distribution of heavy elements is anomalously low in the asteroid main belt region compared with elsewhere in the solar system. Observational surveys also indicate a deficit in the number of small ($ \le 50$~km size) asteroids that is…
The rotational-fission of a rubble-pile asteroid can result in an "asteroid pair", two un-bound asteroids sharing similar orbits. This mechanism might exposes material that previously had never have been exposed to the weathering conditions…
The main belt, the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is home to more than 1 million asteroids. These asteroids form orbital groups, (i.e., asteroid families formed by collisions) and also spectral groups (taxonomies) with…
Magnetic fields provide an important probe of the thermal, material, and structural history of planetary and sub-planetary bodies. Core dynamos are a potential source of magnetic fields for differentiated bodies, but evidence of…
In the past decade, hundreds of asteroid shape models have been derived using the lightcurve inversion method. At the same time, a new framework of 3-D shape modeling based on the combined analysis of widely different data sources such as…
Ceres is the largest body in the Main Belt, and it is characterized by a large abundance of water ice in its interior. This feature is suggested by its relatively low bulk density (2162 kg m$^{-3}$), while its partial differentiation into a…
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…
Thermophysical Models (TPMs), which have proven to be a powerful tool in the interpretation of the infrared emission of asteroid surfaces, typically make use of a priori obtained shape models and spin axes for use as input boundary…
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…
Ascertaining rocky exoplanets dynamic evolution requires better understanding of key internal thermophysical processes that shaped their geological surfaces, heat fluxes, volatiles and atmospheric content. New high-pressure experiments on…
We report that polymer amide [1] with a protein backbone of mainly glycine units and iron is present in the CV3 meteorites Acfer 086, Allende and KABA. The evidence for this is from particles of these meteorites after Folch extraction being…
Methods to constrain the surface mineralogy of asteroids have seen considerable development during the last decade with advancement in laboratory spectral calibrations and validation of our interpretive methodologies by spacecraft…
Debris disks offer valuable insights into the latest stages of circumstellar disk evolution, and can possibly help us to trace the outcomes of planetary formation processes. In the age range 10 to 100\,Myr, most of the gas is expected to…
The near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu displays a Cb-type average spectrum and a very low average normal albedo of 0.04. Although the majority of boulders on Ryugu have reflectance spectra and albedo similar to the Ryugu average, a small…
In many ways, the HR 8799 planetary system strongly resembles our own. It features four giant planets and two debris belts, analogues to the Asteroid and Edgeworth-Kuiper belts. Here, we present the results of dynamical simulations of HR…
Earth's lower mantle is generally believed to be seismically and chemically homogeneous because most of the key seismic parameters can be explained using a simplified mineralogical model at expected press-temperature conditions. However,…
Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Moving Object Catalog, we study color as a function of size for C-complex families in the Main Asteroid Belt to improve our understanding of space weathering of carbonaceous materials. We find…
Asteroid pairs had a single progenitor that split due to rotational-fission of a weak, rubble-pile structured body. By constructing shape models of asteroid pairs from multiple-apparition observations and using a lightcurve inversion…