Absolute spectral modelling of asteroid (4) Vesta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

We present a new physics-based approach to model the absolute reflectance spectra of asteroid (4) Vesta. The spectral models are derived by utilizing a ray-optics code that simulates light scattering by particles large compared to the wavelength of the incident light. In the light of the spectral data obtained by the Dawn spacecraft, we use howardite powder to model Vesta's surface regolith and its particle size distribution for 10-200 mu m sized particles. Our results show that the modelled spectrum mimics well the observations. The best match was found using a power-law particle size distribution with an index 3.2. This suggests that Vesta's regolith is dominated by howardite particles
Original languageEnglish
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume483
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)1952–1956
Number of pages5
ISSN0035-8711
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2019
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Fields of Science

  • DAWN
  • DISCRETE RANDOM-MEDIA
  • DIVERSITY
  • MAIN-BELT
  • METEORITES
  • PHOTOMETRY
  • REGOLITH
  • SCATTERING
  • SPECTROSCOPY
  • methods: numerical
  • minor planets, asteroids: individual: Vesta
  • scattering
  • techniques: spectroscopic
  • 115 Astronomy, Space science

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