pith. sign in

arxiv: 1805.09445 · v1 · pith:7JBZ2NRInew · submitted 2018-05-23 · 🌌 astro-ph.EP

Size Distribution of Small Hilda Asteroids

classification 🌌 astro-ph.EP
keywords distributionsizeasteroidsdiameterhildahildasjupitermain-belt
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

We present the size distribution for Hilda asteroid group using optical survey data obtained by the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope with the Hyper Suprime-Cam. Our unbiased sample consists of 91 Hilda asteroids (Hildas) down to 1~km in diameter. We found that the Hildas' size distribution can be approximated by a single-slope power law in the ~1-10 km diameter range with the best-fit power-law slope of alpha = 0.38 +/- 0.02 in the differential absolute magnitude distribution. Direct comparing the size distribution of Hildas with that of the Jupiter Trojans measured from the same dataset Yoshida & Terai (2017) indicates that the two size distributions are well similar to each other within a diameter of ~10 km, while these shapes are distinguishable from that of main-belt asteroids. The results suggest that Hildas and Jupiter Trojans share a common origin and have a different formation environment from main-belt asteroids. The total number of the Hilda population larger than 2 km in diameter is estimated to be ~1 x 10^4 based on the size distribution, which is less than that of the Jupiter Trojan population by a factor of about five.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.