English

A Spectroscopically Unique Main Belt Asteroid: 10537 (1991 RY16)

Astrophysics 2008-09-30 v1

Abstract

We present visible and near-infrared reflectance spectra and interpreted surface mineralogy for asteroid 10537 (1991 RY16). The spectrum of this object is without precedent amongst the Main Belt asteroids. A unique absorption band centered at 0.63 microns could be attributed to one of several mineralogies. Pronounced 1- and 2-micron absorption bands suggest that the composition of 10537 is a mixture of pyroxenes and olivine and that it originated from a parent body that was partially or fully differentiated. The closest available analog is the large Main Belt asteroid 349 Dembowska but 10537 may be an isolated fragment from a completely eroded parent body.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0806.2185,
  title  = {A Spectroscopically Unique Main Belt Asteroid: 10537 (1991 RY16)},
  author = {Nicholas A. Moskovitz and Samuel Lawrence and Robert Jedicke and Mark Willman and Nader Haghighipour and Schelte J. Bus and Eric Gaidos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.2185},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

14 pages, 3 figures, to be published in ApJ Letters

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