Collisional evolution of the Main Belt and NEA populations Tracking the fragments of Ceres and Vesta.

ZAIN, PATRICIO S.; DE ELÍA, GONZALO CARLOS; DI SISTO, ROMINA P.

Montevideo

Congreso; Asteroid Comets Meteors 2017; 2017

In this work, we analyze the collisional evolution of the Main Belt and NEA populations, taking account the major dynamical features present in both populations. We also study the fragment generation in impacts with Ceres and Vesta, in an attempt to answer the question regarding the existence and properties of their associated dynamical families. To doso, we developed a program which calculates the evolution in time, over the age of the Solar System, of the size distributions of four populations: Main Belt asteroids, NEAs, and fragments of Ceres and Vesta. Our simulations predict, in terms of collisional evolution, that the creation of fragments of Ceres and Vesta in a wide range of diameters is indeed possible. This result is a starting point in our research, which will be continued in a further analysis of the dynamical evolution of these bodies, in order to determine the final fate of the fragments generated by the two biggest asteroids in the Solar System. This work will also enable us to quantify the fragment generation rate from Ceres and Vesta, along with the relationship of the fragments with the NEAs and other Main Belt asteroids.