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ASTEROID TAXONOMY FROM CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF PHOTOMETRY. Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors THOLEN, DAVID JAMES. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 01/10/2021 21:10:18 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187738 INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a docum(~nt sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this document, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of ti.e material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help clarify markings or notations which may ap pear on this reproduction. I. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image alld duplicating adjacent pages to assure complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark, it is an indication of either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, duplicate copy, or copyrighted materials that should not have been filmed. For blurred pages, a good image of the pagt' can be found in the adjacent frame. If copyrighted materials were deleted, a target note will appear listing the pages in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., is part of the material being photographed, a definite method of "sectioning" the material has been followed. It is customary to begin filming at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. If necessary, sectioning is continued again-beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. For illustrations that cannot be satisfactorily reprod\lced by xerographic means, p'10tographic prints can be purchased at additional cost and inserted into your xerographic copy. These prints are available upon request from the Dissertations Customer Services DCJ. ;.Ictment. 5. Some pages in any document may have indistinct print. In all cases the best available copy has been filmed. University MicrOfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI48106 8421985 Tholen, David James ASTEROID ·r AXONOMY FROM CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF PHOTOMETRY The University of Arizona PH.D. 1984 University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI48106 ASTEROID TAXONOMY FROM CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF PROTO~iliTRY by David James Tholen A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF PLANETARY SCIENCES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSCPRY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1 984 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by David James Tholen entitled __~A~s~t~e~r~o~i~d_T~a~x~o~n~o~m~y~f~ro~m~C~l~u~s~t~e~r~A~n~a~l~y~s~i~s~o~f~P~h~o~t~o~m~=e~t~rYL- ______ __ and recommend that it be accept~d as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy I" f ( 1 r'( Date (qY'f Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. (5 .~ H. ~~ DisslrtatI3n Direct Date STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people had a profound influence on this work. Special thanks go to Earl Meyer, ~mo> perhaps more than anyone else, stimulated my interest in astronomy a little over ten years ago. Wes Unruh, Steve Shawl, Tom Armstrong, and John Davidson nurtured thc1t lntprcst during my undergraduate years at the University of Kansas. Ben Zellner served as dissertation director and principal investigator of the massive observational program on which this work is based. cd Tedesco introduced me to the art of photometry, and because of his continued interest in this work, had as much influence on the final product as anyone. The observations could not have been possible without the help of Jack Frecker and Ed Roland, who kept the equipment running, o~casionally on short notice. The other committee members, George Rieke, Bob Strom, John Kessler, Ke Chiang Hsieh, Rein Kilkson, and Stanley E~!hkiv deserve credit for overseeing this work. Special thanks go to Tom Gehrels for encouragement and additional financial support. Others who were especially influential were Elizabeth Roemer, Larry Lebofsky, Santi1go Tapia, Jack Drummond, Carl Vesely, Ron Taylor, and many others. I am indebted to Ed Tedesco and Jonathan Gradie for use of their extensive set of geometric albedos in advance of publication. Bob Brown and David Morrison made a set of albedos available for inclusion in the iii l.v. analysis, also in advance of publication. Larry Lebofsky provided an improved albedo for 2100 Ra-Shalom, and Glenn Veeder provided an albedo for 1915 Quetzalcoatl, likewise in advance of publication. As always, the secretarial help deserves a nod of appreciation. Shirley Marinus, Terry Mullin, Nancy Lebofsky, and the many others who have been through the main office are'a special group. Roommates Humberto Campins (a vJild and crazy guy) and Roy Tucker (may the Force be with him) deserve a citation for putting up with me and my ravings on asteroids (and Pluto) for the last few years. Thanks go to the entire Polariscope Group (including that inanimate object, the Perkin-Elmer computer, wh ich stayed up '.'ith me faithfully late at night, usually) for their part in my work. Lastly, thanks go to Faith Vilas and the rest of the Planetary Sciences student body, past and present, for the moral support needed to survive five-plus years here. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii LIST OF TABLE.S l.X ABSTRACT x 1. lNTRODUCTION 2. THE HISTORY OF ASTEROID TAXONmlY 4 Measurements of Asteroid Colors 5 Photographic Work . 5 Photoelectric Work 6 Spectrophotometric Work 7 Infrared Colors . 8 Classification of Asteroids 9 InadequacieG of the Pres~nt Taxonomy 13 3. THE DATA SET 16 Eight-Color Photometry 17 Thermal Radiometry 20 Separating high- and Low-Quality Data 21 4. PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS 25 Factor Analysis Versus Principal Component Analysis 25 Analysis of Eight-Color Data '27 Choosing a Two-Color Plot 36 5. CLUSTER ANALYSIS 54 Basic Problems with Cluster Analysis 5:' Discussion of Clustering Techniques 58 Method 1 58 Method 2 58 Method 3 5~ Method 4 60 Application to the Asteroid Data 60 v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS--Continued A New Asteroid Taxonomy . • . 64 Step One - Scaling ....•...... 64 Step Two - Generating an Initial Partition 66 Step Three - Iteration . • . • . 71 Step Four - Flagging Unusual or Noisy Data 73 Step Five - Checking the Classifications with Un-normalized data 74 Discussion of Individual Objects 75 77 Frigga . 92 317 Roxane 92 515 Athalia 92 2577 Litva 93 1982 DV . 93 Tabulation of Class Characteristics • 93 6. DISTRIBUTION OF ASTEROID CLASSES III The Distribution of Asteroid Classes with Heliocentric Distance ........... III Interesting Regions of the Asteroid Belt 116 Earth-Approaching Ast2roids 117 Hungaria Region . 119 Family 174 (Feronia Family) 122 Family 24 (Nysa Family) . 122 Families 1 and lA (Themis Family) 124 Family 2 (Eos Family) .. 127 Family 3 {Koronis Family) 127 Hilda Region 130 Trojan Asteroids 130 7. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK 134 Principal Component Analysis 134 A ~ew Asteroid Taxonomy . 136 Distribution of Asteroid Classes 137 Future Work . 13H Infrared Photometry 139 Visual Photometry . 140 Thermal Radiometry 140 Data Analysis 141 LIST OF REFERENCES 144 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Number of Asteroids Included in Sample Versus Maximum Allowable Uncertainty, Expressed in Standard Deviations 23 2. Standard UBV Two-Color Diagram for 563 Asteroids with High- Quality UBV Color Indices . 28 3. Two-Color Diagram for 524 Asteroids with High-Quality s-v and u·'·v Color Indices . • . 32 4. First and Second Principal Component Plot for 405 Asteroids with high-Quality Eight-Color Spectra . .. 33 5. First and Third ~rincipal Component Plot for 405 Asteroids with High-Quality Eight-Color Spectra . 34 6. Two-Color Diagram for 486 Asteroids with High-Quality u-v and v-x Color Indices . 53 7. Minimal Tree Diagram for 405 Asteroids with High-Quality Eight-Color Spectra . 63 o. Domains of the Asteroid Classes 99 9. Mean Spectra for the B, C, F, and G Asteroids Classes 100 10. Mean Spectra for the D, T, and Spectrally Degenerate E, H, and P Asteroid Classes ....