Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:42:54.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Formation of the Asteroids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

J.G. Hills
J.G. Hills*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Recently Anders (1965) has shown that the smaller asteroids are overabundant relative to their initial numbers because of the collisional fragmentation of larger asteroids. Allowing for this fragmentation, he has derived a reconstructed initial radius distribution. Although the reconstructed distribution only comprises a little more than 100 asteroids and consequently has a large statistical uncertainty as well as the uncertainty introduced by the reconstruction process, Anders finds that when displayed on a log-log plot, the distribution can be represented fairly well by a gaussian curve with a peak near radius R = 30 km. This work has basically been substantiated by Hartmann and Hartmann (1968), although Hartmann (1968) notes that a gaussian distribution underestimates the observed number of more massive asteroids. This suggests that the initial asteroid distribution function was probably broader than a gaussian function, but it still retains a distinct bell-like appearance.

Type
Part II-Origin of Asteroids Interrelations with Comets, Meteorites, and Meteors
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 12: Physical Studies of Minor Planets , 1971 , pp. 225 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1971

References

Anders, E. 1965, Fragmentation History of Asteroids. Icarus 4, 399–408.Google Scholar
Hartmann, W.K. 1968, Growth of Asteroids and Planetesimals by Accretion. Astrophys. J. 152, 337–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartmann, W.K., and Hartmann, A.C. 1968, Asteroid Collisions and Evolution of Asteroidal Mass Distribution and Meteoritic Flux. Icarus 8, 361–381.Google Scholar
Hills, J.G. 1970, The Formation of the Terrestrial Planets. Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 2, 320.Google Scholar
Piotrowski, S. 1953, The Collisions of Asteroids. Acta Astron. Ser. A 5, 115–138.Google Scholar