The Mineralogy of Middle- and Outer-Belt Vestoids
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Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX (2008) 2270.pdf THE MINERALOGY OF MIDDLE- AND OUTER-BELT VESTOIDS. T. H. Burbine1, P. C. Buchanan2 and R. P. Binzel3, 1Department of Astronomy, Mount Holyoke College, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA 01075, USA ([email protected]), 2Kilgore College, 1100 Broadway, Kilgore, TX 75662, USA (pbu- [email protected]), 3Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ([email protected]). Introduction: Asteroid 4 Vesta is commonly (a=3.01 AU) [14], 10537 1991 RY16 (a=2.85 AU) thought to have a basaltic crust due to its spectral simi- [14], 21238 1995 WV7 (a=2.54 AU) [15,16], and larity in the visible and near-infrared to the HED me- 40521 1999 RL5 (a=2.53 AU) [10]. teorites (howardites, eucrites, and diogenites) [1,2]. Roig et al. [10] have calculated that some of the Vesta is located in the inner main-belt with a semi- middle-belt Vestoids could be fragments of Vesta. major axis (a) of 2.36 AU and is one of the few aster- The calculated probability is a function of the size of oids that can be persuasively linked to a group of me- the object since a larger size reduces the efficiency of teorites [3]. the Yarkovsky effect. Roig et al. [10] found that there HEDs are a clan of achondritic meteorites that have is a low probability (~1%) that 21238 1995 WV7 (~5 continuous variations in mineralogy and chemistry [4]. km in diameter) is a fragment of Vesta; however, Eucrites are composed primarily of anorthitic plagio- 40521 1999 RL5 (~3 km in diameter) has a much clase and low-Ca pyroxene with augite exsolution la- higher probability to be related to Vesta due to its mellae, whereas diogenites are predominately mag- slightly smaller estimated diameter. nesian orthopyroxene. Howardites are polymict brec- In this study, near-infrared spectra of two of these cias containing fragments of both lithologies and are middle- and outer-belt Vestoids, 1459 Magnya and the primary evidence that almost all HEDs are derived 21238 1995 WV7, are analyzed. Our goal is to deter- from one parent body. Oxygen isotopes [5,6] also are mine whether the average pyroxene mineralogies of consistent with almost all HEDs originating on the these objects are consistent with HEDs. Could they be same parent body. fragments of the HED parent body? Pyroxenes have distinctive absorption features [7] Observations: Both 1459 Magnya and 21238 that are centered near 0.9 and 1.9 μm and are due to 1995 WV7 were observed using SpeX. SpeX is a me- the presence of Fe2+ in pyroxenes. Reflectance spectra dium-resolution near-infrared spectrograph [17], of Vesta, Vestoids [8,9], and HEDs all have these dis- which is used on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facil- tinctive features, which move to longer wavelengths ity (IRTF) located on Mauna Kea. A Magnya near- for increasing contents of Fe2+ and/or Ca2+ in pyrox- infrared spectrum was previously obtained and ana- enes. It is important to note that although most po- lyzed by Hardersen et al. [10]. Appropriate standard lymict HED breccias contain a wide variety of pyrox- stars were used to produce the final spectra. enes, the resulting reflectance spectrum of each of Results: Spectra of Magnya and 1995 WV7 are these breccias has a single Band I minimum and a sin- plotted in Figure 1. Both objects have the characteris- gle Band II minimum. Hence, the average pyroxene tic absorption features of Vestoids. The most notable composition of a breccia controls the positions of these difference in the two spectra is that the Band II mini- minima. mum of 1995 WV7 is at a much shorter wavelength Vesta is the largest body (~500 km in diameter) in than the Band II of Magnya. an asteroid family. A large number of these objects in the Vesta family have spectra similar to HEDs and are 3 commonly called Vestoids. Vestoids are also found 2.5 21238 1995 WV7 outside the Vesta family. Almost all of the inner-belt 2 Vestoids are thought to be fragments of Vesta. Vestoids have also been identified past the 3:1 1.5 1459 Magnya resonance (~2.5 AU). Asteroids in this resonance have 1 very unstable orbits and it appears very difficult for 0.5 Normalized Reflectance Normalized objects to cross this resonance [10]. For example, the 00.511.522.5 first one identified was outer-belt 1459 Magnya [11], which has a semi-major axis of 3.14 AU. It is dynami- Wavelength (μm) cally difficult [12] to derive Magnya from Vesta. Magnya has an estimated diameter of ~17 km [13]. Figure 1. Reflectance spectra of 1459 Magnya and 21238 Other identified Vestoids include 7472 Kumakiri 1995 WV7. The spectra are offset in reflectance. Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX (2008) 2270.pdf Analysis: The Band I and Band II of each spec- Magnya is consistent with a eucrite. The Gaffey et al. trum were fit to determine band centers. The reddened [19] formulas suggest that it may be a noncumulate continua of the Band I and II of the Magnya spectrum eucrite, whereas the Burbine et al. [20] formulas sug- and Band I of the 1995 WV7 spectrum were first di- gest it may be a cumulate eucrite. vided out. As recommended by Storm et al. [18], we For 1995 WV7, the Gaffey et al. [19] formulas pro- then fit a 2nd order polynomial over one-third of each duce average pyroxene compositions with Wo contents band to determine the band centers. Error bars were that are higher than diogenite pyroxenes; Fs contents only estimated, but will be calculated later using the are intermediate between the compositions of dio- method of Storm et al. [18]. genite and cumulate eucrite pyroxenes. The Burbine et The Band I center for Magnya is calculated to be al. [20] formulas produce average pyroxene composi- 0.93±0.01 μm whereas its Band II center is at tions for WV7 that are consistent with a cumulate 1.96±0.02 μm. Within these estimated error bars, eucrite. It is also possible that both of these asteroids these band centers are the same as those calculated for have surfaces composed of polymict breccias similar Magnya by Hardersen et al. [9]. The Band I center for to howardites. Hence, considering all of the uncertain- 1995 WV7 is calculated to be 0.93±0.01 μm whereas ties, both asteroids have average pyroxene composi- its Band II center is at 1.89±0.02 μm. tions consistent with HEDs. Magnya appears to be To calculate the pyroxene mineralogies of these evidence that other HED-like bodies formed in the objects using the formulas of Gaffey et al. [19] or Bur- belt, while 1995 WV7 could be a fragment of Vesta. bine et al. [20], the band positions must be corrected References: [1] McCord T. B. et al. (1970) Sci- for the temperatures on asteroids [21,22]. The surface ence, 168, 1445-1447. [2] Larson H. P. and Fink U. temperature for Magnya when it was observed is calculated (1975) Icarus, 26, 420-427. [3] Pieters C. M. et al. to be ~130 K while 1995 WV7 is slightly warmer (~150 K) (2005) Asteroids, Comets, Meteors, Proceedings IAU if both objects have Magnya’s albedo (0.37) [13]. From the Symposium No. 229, 273-288. [4] Mittlefehldt D. W. work of Moroz et al. [22] on the reflectance spectra of py- et al. (1998) Reviews in Mineralogy, Vol. 36, Plane- roxenes at low temperatures, only the Band II center appears tary Materials, 4-1-4-195. [5] Wiechert U. H. et al. significantly shifted for asteroid temperatures. To correct for (2004) EPSL, 221, 373-382. [6] Greenwood R. C. et the low temperatures, we added 0.02-0.03 μm to the Band al. (2005) Nature, 435, 916-918. [7] Burns R. G. II center position of each asteroid. The temperature- (1993) Mineralogical Applications of Crystal Field adjusted Band II center for Magnya was ~1.98-1.99 Theory, 2nd edition. [8] Kelley M. S. et al.(2003) (±0.02) μm and the Band II center for 1995 WV7 was Icarus, 165, 215-218. [9] Hardersen P. S. et al. (2004) 1.91-1.92 (±0.02) μm. Icarus, 167, 170-177. [10] Roig F. et al. (2008) Icarus, Using the Gaffey et al. [19] formulas on our tem- in press. [11] Lazzaro D. et al. (2000) Science, 288, perature-corrected band centers, we calculated average 2033-2035. [12] Michtchenko T. A. et al. (2002) pyroxene mineralogies of Fs47-50±5Wo9±4 for Magnya Icarus, 158, 343-359. [13] Delbo M. et al. (2006) and Fs29-31±5Wo9±4 for 1995 WV7. Using updated Bur- Icarus, 181, 618-622. [14] Duffard R. and Roig F. bine et al. [20] formulas, we calculated average pyrox- (2007) arXiv:0704.0230v1. [15] Hammergren M. et al. ene mineralogies of Fs41-42±3Wo9±1 for Magnya and (2006) arXiv:astro-ph/0609420v1. [16] Binzel R. P. et Fs33-34±3Wo6±1 for 1995 WV7 for these band center al. (2006) BAAS, 38, 627. [17] Rayner J. T. et al. positions. Our calculated Fs content for Magnya is (2003) PASP, 115, 362-382. [18] Storm S. et al. higher than that calculated by Hardersen et al. [9] due (2007) BAAS, 39, 448. [19] Gaffey M. J. et al. (2002) to our Band II center position being at a slightly higher Asteroids III, 183-204. [20] Burbine T. H. et al. (2007) wavelength (but within error bars) and our use of a LPS XXXVIII, Abstract #2117.