TY - JOUR
T1 - Composition of the L5 Mars Trojans
T2 - Neighbors, not siblings
AU - Rivkin, Andrew S.
AU - Trilling, David E.
AU - Thomas, Cristina A.
AU - DeMeo, Francesca
AU - Spahr, Timothy B.
AU - Binzel, Richard P.
N1 - Funding Information:
The data taken here were obtained through the SMASS and MIT-IRTF-UH surveys as targets of opportunity. This work was supported by NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics Grant NNG06GA23G. As usual, Dave, Bill, Paul, and Eric at the IRTF were indispensable to actually getting the data in the first place. Data from RELAB were critical for our analysis, and we thank Tom Burbine for sharing his meteorite spectra. Helpful reviews by Tom Burbine and Sonia Fornasier improved and strengthened this manuscript. This work has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System. Thanks to Gwen Bart, Ross Beyer, Dave O'Brien, and Paul Withers for creating the template used for this manuscript. And continuing thanks to the indigenous people of Hawai'i for allowing astronomers to use their sacred mountain.
PY - 2007/12/15
Y1 - 2007/12/15
N2 - Mars is the only terrestrial planet known to have Trojan (co-orbiting) asteroids, with a confirmed population of at least 4 objects. The origin of these objects is not known; while several have orbits that are stable on Solar System timescales, work by Rivkin et al. [Rivkin, A.S., Binzel, R.P., Howell, E.S., Bus, S.J., Grier, J.A., 2003. Icarus 165, 349-354] showed they have compositions that suggest separate origins from one another. We have obtained infrared (0.8-2.5 μm) spectroscopy of the two largest L5 Mars Trojans, and confirm and extend the results of Rivkin et al. We suggest that the differentiated angrite meteorites are good spectral analogs for 5261 Eureka, the largest Mars Trojan. Meteorite analogs for 101429 1998 VF31 are more varied and include primitive achondrites and mesosiderites.
AB - Mars is the only terrestrial planet known to have Trojan (co-orbiting) asteroids, with a confirmed population of at least 4 objects. The origin of these objects is not known; while several have orbits that are stable on Solar System timescales, work by Rivkin et al. [Rivkin, A.S., Binzel, R.P., Howell, E.S., Bus, S.J., Grier, J.A., 2003. Icarus 165, 349-354] showed they have compositions that suggest separate origins from one another. We have obtained infrared (0.8-2.5 μm) spectroscopy of the two largest L5 Mars Trojans, and confirm and extend the results of Rivkin et al. We suggest that the differentiated angrite meteorites are good spectral analogs for 5261 Eureka, the largest Mars Trojan. Meteorite analogs for 101429 1998 VF31 are more varied and include primitive achondrites and mesosiderites.
KW - Asteroids
KW - Trojan asteroids
KW - composition
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U2 - 10.1016/j.icarus.2007.06.026
DO - 10.1016/j.icarus.2007.06.026
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:36549030744
SN - 0019-1035
VL - 192
SP - 434
EP - 441
JO - Icarus
JF - Icarus
IS - 2
ER -