NEAR Encounter with Asteroid 253 Mathilde: Overview

Veverka, J.; Thomas, P. C.; Harch, A.; Clark, B. E.; Bell, J. F.; Carcich, B.; Joseph, J.; Murchie, S. L.; Izenberg, N. R.; Chapman, C. R.; Merline, W. J.; Malin, M. C.; McFadden, L. A.; Robinson, M. S.

doi:10.1006/icar.1999.6120

Cited by 134 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…The density used here is a minimum critical density required for 133P to be stable against centrifugal forces induced by its rapid rotation (Hsieh et al 2004), but is also consistent with the density of ρ a = 1300 ± 300 kg m −3 found for (253) Mathilde (another C-type asteroid) from a flyby by the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft (Veverka et al 1999). One finds R ≈ 4 × 10 −5 for the minimum inferred crater size of r v ∼ 10 m, and R ≈ 7 × 10 −2 for a crater as large as 133P itself (i.e., r v ∼ 1.9 km).…”

Section: Impact Circumstances and Environmentsupporting

confidence: 81%

The Hawaii trails project: comet-hunting in the main asteroid belt

Hsieh

2009

A&A

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Context. The mysterious solar system object 133P/(7968) Elst-Pizarro is dynamically asteroidal, yet displays recurrent comet-like dust emission. Two scenarios were hypothesized to explain this unusual behavior: 1) 133P is a classical comet from the outer solar system that has evolved onto a main-belt orbit or 2) 133P is a dynamically ordinary main-belt asteroid on which subsurface ice has recently been exposed. If 1) is correct, the expected rarity of a dynamical transition onto an asteroidal orbit implies that 133P could be alone in the main belt. In contrast, if 2) is correct, other icy main-belt objects should exist and could also exhibit cometary activity. Aims. Believing 133P to be a dynamically ordinary, yet icy main-belt asteroid, I set out to test the primary prediction of the hypothesis: that 133P-like objects should be common and could be found by an appropriately designed observational survey. Methods. I conducted just such a survey -the Hawaii Trails Project -of selected main-belt asteroids in a search for objects displaying cometary activity. Optical observations were made of targets selected from among the Themis, Koronis, and Veritas asteroid families, the Karin asteroid cluster, and low-inclination, kilometer-scale outer-belt asteroids, using the Lulin 1.0 m, small and moderate aperture research telescope system (SMARTS) 1.0 m, University of Hawaii 2.2 m, southern astrophysical research (SOAR) 4.1 m, Gemini North 8.1 m, Subaru 8.2 m, and Keck I 10 m telescopes. Results. I made 657 observations of 599 asteroids, discovering one active object now known as 176P/LINEAR, leading to the identification of the new cometary class of main-belt comets (MBCs). These results suggest that there could be ∼100 currently active MBCs among low-inclination, kilometer-scale outer-belt asteroids. Physically and statistically, MBC activity is consistent with initiation by meter-sized impactors. The estimated rate of impacts and sizes of resulting active sites, however, imply that 133P-sized bodies should become significantly devolatilized over Gyr timescales, suggesting that 133P, and possibly the other MBCs as well, could be secondary, or even multigenerational, fragments from recent breakup events.

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Section: Impact Circumstances and Environmentsupporting

confidence: 81%

The Hawaii trails project: comet-hunting in the main asteroid belt

Hsieh

2009

A&A

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“…Mathilde is a C-type asteroid visited by the NEAR spacecraft on June 27, 1997 (Veverka et al 1999). Lightcurve data from Mottola et al (1995) showed that Mathilde had a rotation period of 17.4 days.…”

Section: Rotational State Of 253 Mathildementioning

confidence: 97%

Momentum Transfer in Oblique Impacts: Implications for Asteroid Rotations

Yanagisawa

Hasegawa

2000

Icarus

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“…An overview of the flyby is given in Veverka et al (1999), Chapman et al (1999) investigate the crater density data on this object, and Clark et al (1999) discuss the photometry of Mathilde.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%