• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.46.1-46.1
• /
• 2021

Hydrated asteroids get widespread attention for the evolution of water in the Solar System, especially thanks to the recent successes of the Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx space missions. The target asteroids of these missions are believed to be fragments that have experienced aqueous alteration in their parent bodies [3]. Although hydrated asteroids have been studied well via spectroscopy, focusing on the 0.7 um or the 2.7 um absorption bands [2, 3, 4], polarimetric properties of these asteroids have rarely been investigated. In this study, we conducted a polarimetric observation of 18 C-complex main-belt asteroids with the 1.6-m Pirka telescope at the Nayoro Observatory of Hokkaido University, Japan. We used a polarimetric imaging mode of the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) with the standard Rc-band filter (the central wavelength at 0.64 um) [5]. As a result, we found that all of these hydrated asteroids indicate deep negative branches of their polarimetric profiles. Accordingly, the hydrated asteroids have the polarization minima (Pmin), whose values are significantly lower than any other taxonomic types of asteroids (including C-group asteroids). Because Pmin depends on albedo, particle size, and porosity of the surface materials [1], we suspect that hydrated asteroids are distinctive from other asteroids in terms of these physical properties. In this presentation, we introduce our polarimetric observation and findings. We discuss why hydrated asteroids indicate such low Pmin values, comparing Pmin with spectral features at 0.7 um and 2.7 um based on the observation results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.65-65
• /
• 2019

Near-Earth objects consist of a mixture of bodies originated from outer solar system and main asteroidal belt, which are recognized as comets and near-Earth asteroids. In principal, they have orbits distinguishable by their orbital elements. It is, however, that some comets are recognized as asteroids because they could have lost the most of volatile materials in their subsurface layers. Due to their asteroidal appearances, it has been challenging to discriminate such dormant comets from a list of known asteroids. Here we propose to utilize polarimetric technique for finding such dormant comets. We thus conducted a polarimetric observations of three candidates of dormant comet nuclei, (331471) 1984 QY1, (3552) Don Quixote and (944) Hidalgo, by using the 1.6-m Pirka Telescope at the Nayoro observatory (operated by Hokkaido University, Japan). We selected these asteroids in comet-like orbits (ACOs) based on the orbital elements (i.e., the Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter TJ < 3). We found that 1984 QY1 has a polarimetric albedo (geometric albedo determined via polarimetry) pV = 0.16 +/- 0.06 while both Don Quixote and Hidalgo have Rc-band polarimetric albedos pR < 0.05. In accordance with the polarimetric result together with a dynamical analysis, we surmised that 1984 QY1 could be an S-type asteroid evolved into the current orbit via 3:1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter. On the contrary, the previous spectroscopic studies indicated that Don Quixote and Hidalgo are classified into D-type taxonomic group, which are typical of comet nuclei. In this presentation, we will introduce our polarimetric observations of ACOs and emphasize that polarimetry is powerful for discriminating the asteroidal and cometary origins.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.62.2-62.2
• /
• 2013

It is considered that comets near the ecliptic plane have been injected into inner solar system from Kuiper-belt. Some of them are still active while others are dormant with no detectable tails and comae. These dormant comets have eccentric and/or inclined orbits, which are parameterized by Tisserand parameter TJ<3. In addition, dormant comets can be differentiated from asteroids based on the albedo, because they have low albedo (the geometrical albedos pv<0.1). The conditions of TJ<3 and pv<0.1 have been used as a criteria to discriminate dormant comets from asteroids. However, we must be more careful because there are 'contaminations' from the outer region, i.e. Jovian Trojans (5.05

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.98.2-98.2
• /
• 2012

It has been speculated that there could be dormant or extinct comets in the list of known asteroids, which appear asteroidal but are icy bodies originating from outer solar system. However, little is known about the existence of such objects not only because of their complicated chaotic orbits but also because of the limited physical and chemical information. AKARI infrared space mission gave us brand-new albedo catalog of Near Earth Objects, which clues in a better understanding of dark asteroids using both albedo data and dynamical models could be possible. Dark Asteroids with low () albedos are thought to be dormant or extinct comet candidates due to its similar albedo values with comet nucleus. In addition to this, dynamical models indicate that candidate cometary objects have Tisserand parameter. Based on both observational and dynamical criteria, we obtained 196 dark asteroids lists. We numerically integrated backward their orbits using the N-body code Mercury6 (Chambers 1999) during 10 million years to track the past orbits of bodies. We picked out 14 comet candidates that show abnormal orbits in the past by analyzing orbital elements among 196 candidates. From the dynamical evolution simulations, we finally obtained 3 most-likely comet candidates; 944Hidalgo,2006QL39,andP/SidingSpring.Twoofthemareconsistent with past research; P/Siding Spring is a known comet and 944 Hidalgo is a most-likely comet candidate in asteroid populations. Since they all have stable orbits in nowadays although they have unstable orbit in the past, we could conclude that they may be not active comets but dormant or extinct comets.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.50.2-50.2
• /
• 2017

Spatial distribution of atmosphereless bodies in the solar system provides an important clue as to their origins, namely asteroids from Mainbelt or comets from outer solar system. It is, however, difficult to distinguish asteroids and dormant comets due to their similar appearances. In this study, we conducted a unique observation to differentiate asteroids and dormant comets in terms of 'polarimetry'. We observed (331471) 1984 QY1 (hereafter QY1) at large phase angles using the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) on the 1.6-m Pirka Telescope from UT 2016 May 25 to June 24. QY1 is a dormant comet candidate in terms of the dynamical properties (i.e. the Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter, TJ = 2.68). We analyzed the polarization degree of QY1 as a function of phase angle and found its maximum polarization degree, $Pmax=8.68{\pm}0.28%$ and $8.72{\pm}0.38%$, in RC-and V-band, respectively, around the phase angle of ${\alpha}=100^{\circ}$. In addition, we obtained the geometric albedo, $pV=0.16{\pm}0.02$ by means of an empirical slope-albedo law. The polarimetric properties and the albedo value we acquired are similar to those of S-type asteroids rather than cometary nuclei. In this presentation, we introduce our observation and findings. In addition, we further discuss a dynamical transportation process from Mainbelt to the current orbit.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.55-57
• /
• 2017

Presently, the number of known asteroids is more than 710,000. Knowledge of size and albedo is essential in many aspects of asteroid research, such as the chemical composition and mineralogy, the size-frequency distribution of dynamical families, and the relationship between small bodies in the outer solar system or comets. Recently, based on the infrared all-sky survey data obtained by IRAS, AKARI, and WISE, the large asteroid catalogs containing size and albedo data have been constructed. In this paper, we discuss the compositional distribution in the main belt regions based on the compiled data on size, albedo, and separately obtained taxonomic type information.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.101.2-101.2
• /
• 2012

An asteroid family is a population of asteroids in the proper orbital element space (a, e, i), considered to have been produced by a disruption of a large parent body presumably through a catastrophic collision. Asteroid families offer unique opportunities to reconstruct and characterize the break-up history of airless bodies in the main-belt. The Maria family is a typical old population (~3${\pm}$1 Gyr) of asteroids that have undergone significant collisional and dynamical evolution in the history of the inner Solar System; it is also believed to be one of the candidate source regions for giant S-type near-earth asteroids (NEAs). However, to date, physical characteristics of this family members such as rotational periods have been known only for 61 of the larger asteroids among 3,230 objects, which accounts for less than 2 percent of the family. In this presentation, we provide some preliminary results of our recent study: out of more than dozen of the family members, lightcurves for eight objects have been obtained for the first time. We plan to increase the number of target objects, and investigate evidences for the Yarkovsky/YORP effect on Maria family based on our observations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.51.2-51.2
• /
• 2018

Polarimetry is a powerful technique to investigate the physical properties of surface materials on airless bodies in the solar system. It is known that the degree of linear polarization changes as a function of the phase angle (the angle between Sun-target-Observer). Especially, the dependency of the polarization degree at large phase angle allows us to obtain information related to the particle size and porosity, which is difficult to be determined via other observation techniques (i.e., photometry and spectroscopy). However, despite the advantage, only a few asteroids were observed with polarimetric devices at large phase angles. Here, we present our new polarimetric research of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) observed at the large phase angles. Among the NEAs, we focus on S- and Q-type asteroids, which include: (331471) 1984 QY1, (90075) 2002 VU94, and (66391) 1999 KW4. The observation was conducted using the Pirka 1.6-m Telescope at the Nayoro Observatory of Hokkaido University at the phase angles ${\alpha}{\sim}100degree$, which provides us the maximum polarization degrees of these objects. Considering the observational results together with two objects ((1566) Icarus and (4179) Toutatis) in reference papers [1], [2], we will discuss the implication of the regolith size on their surfaces.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.48.2-48.2
• /
• 2018

SPHEREx is expected to provide us with the opportunity of unbiased sampling of small Solar System objects along with near-infrared ($0.75-5.0{\mu}m$) spectroscopic (R ~ 41) information. The estimated numbers of detections are tens of thousands for asteroids, thousands for Trojans, hundreds for comets, and several for Kuiper Belt Objects, Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects. Wide spectral range covering many bands from carbon-bearing molecules and ices will enable us to systematically survey the volatile materials throughout the Solar System. SPHEREx will, for the first time, produce the near-infrared spectral map of the zodiacal light to pin-down the relative contributions of various populations of Solar System objects and interstellar dust to the dust grains in the interplanetary space. The study of the zodiacal light is also important to remove the foreground for the EBL (extragalactic background light) study, one of the main topics of the mission.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.7-15
• /
• 2008

We carried out a set of simulations to reproduce the performance of wide-field NEO surveys based on the revised population model of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) constructed by Morbidelli (2006). This is the first time where the new model is carefully compared with discovery statistics, and with the exception of population model, the simulation is identical to the procedure described in Moon et al. (2008). Our simulations show rather large discrepancy between the number of NEO discoveries made by the actual and the simulated surveys. First of all, unlike Bottke et al. (2002)'s, Morbidelli (2006)'s population model overestimates the number of NEOs. However, the latter reproduces orbit distributions of the actual population better. Our analysis suggests that both models significantly underestimate Amors, while overestimating the number of Apollos. Our simulation result implies that substantial modifications of both models are needed for more accurate reproduction of survey observations. We also identify Hungaria region (HU) to be one of the most convincing candidates that supply a large fraction of asteroids to the inner Solar System.