Karin Cluster

Karin Cluster

The Karin Cluster is a group of at least 90 asteroids in the Koronis family in the main belt. What makes them special is that scientists have used the orbits of 13 members to calculate backwards until they were all found to share the same orbit — that of the parent body from which they all originated.

The cluster is named for its largest member, 832 Karin which has a diameter of about 19 km (11.7 miles). It represents about 15–20% of the mass of the original body which had an estimated diameter of 33 km (20.5 miles). (832) Karin is an S-type asteroid. (4507) 1990FV was originally thought to be a member of the cluster but was identified in 2004 as an interloper. The other cluster members have diameters in the 1-7 km range (0.6-4.3 miles).

The cluster is believed to have been created 5.7 million years ago, making it the most recent known asteroid collision. Because the surfaces of the cluster members are relatively pristine, spectroscopic analyses can tell scientists much about their composition and could shed new light on the question of how closely asteroids and meteorites are related. The fact that we know when their surfaces were formed will also be useful in determining the rate of crater formation in asteroids. It is estimated that in about 100 million years the cluster will have dispersed to a degree where it cannot be separated from the background population of asteroids.

The cluster may also be the source of one of the interplanetary dust bands discovered by the IRAS satellite and may also have generated meteorites which would have compositions consistent with S-type asteroids and cosmic ray exposure ages of approximately 5.7 million years.

A study of the Karin cluster has for the first time detected the Yarkovsky effect in main belt asteroids.

References

1. Nesvorný, D., et al. 2002. The recent breakup of an asteroid in the main-belt region. Nature 417(6890):720-722.

2. Nesvorný, D., Bottke, W.F., Levison, H.F., Dones, L., 2003. Recent originof the Solar System dust bands. Astrophys. J. 591, 486–497.

3. Nesvorný, D., & Bottke, W. F. 2004. Detection of the Yarkovsky effect for main-belt asteroids. Icarus 170: 324-342.

4. Nesvorný, D et al. 2006. Karin cluster formation by asteroid impact. Icarus 183: 296-311.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cluster analysis — The result of a cluster analysis shown as the coloring of the squares into three clusters. Cluster analysis or clustering is the task of assigning a set of objects into groups (called clusters) so that the objects in the same cluster are more… …   Wikipedia

  • 832 Karin — is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It is the largest member of the Karin Cluster, which is named after it. Found in 2002, the Karin cluster is notable for being very young. It is currently believed to have formed in a collision only 5.8 million… …   Wikipedia

  • (832) Karin — Caractéristiques orbitales Époque 18 août 2005 (JJ 2453600.5) Demi grand axe ? km (2,863 ua) Aphélie ? km (3,096 ua) Périhélie ? …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Asteroid family — An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. General… …   Wikipedia

  • Asteroid belt — For the album by Velvet Chain, see Asteroid Belt (album). The asteroid belt (shown in white) is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets… …   Wikipedia

  • Семейство Карины — это небольшая группа астероидов, которая содержит всего около 90 астероидов главного пояса. Особенность данной группы состоит в том, что учёные использовали орбиты 13 астероидов из этого семейства, для определения орбит, по которым они двигались… …   Википедия

  • Cinturón de asteroides — Imagen esquemática del cinturón de asteroides. Se muestra el cinturón principal, entre las órbitas de Marte y Júpiter, y el grupo de los troyanos, en la órbita de Júpiter …   Wikipedia Español

  • (832) Карин — Открытие Первооткрыватель Макс Вольф Место обнаружения Хайдельберг Дата обнаружения 20 сентября 1916 Альтернативные обозначения 1916 AB; 1955 SD3; A902 WH Категория Главное кольцо ( …   Википедия

  • Koronis family — The Koronis family is a family of asteroids in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter. They are thought to have have been formed at least two billion years ago in a catastrophic collision between two larger bodies. The largest known is about 41… …   Wikipedia

  • Xenu — Xenu, also Xemu (pron en|ˈziːnuː or IPAlink en|ˈziːmuː), was, according to Scientology founder (and science fiction writer) L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the Galactic Confederacy who, 75 million years ago, brought billionsThousands of millions… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”