Title

The Origin Of Asteroid 162173 (1999 Ju3)

Keywords

Asteroids: general; Asteroids: individual (162173, 1999 JU3); Minor planets

Abstract

Near-Earth asteroid (162173) 1999 JU3 (henceforth JU 3) is a potentially hazardous asteroid and the target of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa-2 sample return mission. JU3 is also a backup target for two other sample return missions: NASA's OSIRIS-REx and the European Space Agency's Marco Polo-R. We use dynamical information to identify an inner-belt, low-inclination origin through the v6 resonance, more specifically, the region with 2.15 AU < a < 2.5 AU and i < 8°. The geometric albedo of JU3 is 0.07 ± 0.01, and this inner-belt region contains four well-defined low-albedo asteroid families (Clarissa, Erigone, Polana, and Sulamitis), plus a recently identified background population of low-albedo asteroids outside these families. Only two of these five groups, the background and the Polana family, deliver JU3-sized asteroids to the v6 resonance, and the background delivers significantly more JU3-sized asteroids. The available spectral evidence is also diagnostic; the visible and near-infrared spectra of JU3 indicate it is a C-type asteroid, which is compatible with members of the background, but not with the Polana family because it contains primarily B-type asteroids. Hence, this background population of low-albedo asteroids is the most likely source of JU3. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Publication Date

8-1-2013

Publication Title

Astronomical Journal

Volume

146

Issue

2

Number of Pages

-

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/146/2/26

Socpus ID

84880635256 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84880635256

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