Surface compositions of HIlda asteroids from colors of the Sloan digital sky survey

GIL HUTTON, R. BRUNINI, A.

ICARUS

Elsevier

Lugar: Cornell; Año: 2007 vol. 193 p. 567 - 571

0019-1035

In this paper we search for photometric data of asteroids in the Hilda region in the Moving Object Catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveyto find the spectral characteristics of small members of this group. We found that the correlation between size and spectral slope previouslysuggested for Hilda asteroids is correct only for large objects (H <12) but it is not supported by data obtained for the small ones. The bestpossibility to explain this behavior is that a space weathering process affecting the surface properties of these primitive objects is operating,modulated by a collisional resurfacing process affected by the lack of small projectiles in the population. Despite the intrinsic limitations of thefew band photometry of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the analysis presented is based mainly in the detection of spectral slopes providing enoughgood indication about the taxonomic type of these asteroids and making us confident about our conclusions.