1. Spectral properties of near-Earth objects with low-Jovian Tisserand invariant
- Author
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Javier Licandro, Ovidiu Vaduvescu, J. de León, Marcel Popescu, N G Simion, and R M Gherase
- Subjects
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,Physics ,Orbital elements ,education.field_of_study ,Near-Earth object ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Population ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Stellar classification ,01 natural sciences ,Celestial mechanics ,Jovian ,Space and Planetary Science ,Asteroid ,0103 physical sciences ,Invariant (mathematics) ,education ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
The near-Earth objects with low-Jovian Tisserand invariant (TJ) represent about 9 per cent of the known objects orbiting in the near-Earth space, being subject of numerous planetary encounters and large temperature variations. We aim to make a spectral characterization for a large sample of NEOs with TJ ≤ 3.1. Consequently, we can estimate the fraction of bodies with a cometary origin. We report new spectral observations for 26 low-TJ NEOs. The additional spectra, retrieved from different public data bases, allowed us to perform the analysis over a catalogue of 150 objects. We classified them with respect to Bus-DeMeo taxonomic system. The results are discussed regarding their orbital parameters. The taxonomic distribution of low-TJ NEOs differs from the entire NEOs population. Consequently, TJ ∼ 3 can act as a composition border too. We found that 56.2 per cent of low-TJ NEOs have comet-like spectra and they become abundant (79.7 per cent) for TJ ≤ 2.8. 16 D-type objects have been identified in this population, distributed on orbits with an average TJ = 2.65 ± 0.6. Using two dynamical criteria, together with the comet-like spectral classification as an identification method and by applying an observational bias correction, we estimate that the fraction of NEOs with a cometary nature and H ∈ (14, 21) mag has the lower and upper bounds (1.5 ± 0.15) and (10.4 ± 2.2) per cent. Additionally, our observations show that all extreme cases of low-perihelion asteroids (q ≤ 0.3 au) belong to S-complex.
- Published
- 2021