Revising the Age for the Baptistina Asteroid Family Using WISE/NEOWISE Data
Abstract
We have used numerical routines to model the evolution of a simulated Baptistina family to constrain its age in light of new measurements of the diameters and albedos of family members from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. We also investigate the effect of varying the assumed physical and orbital parameters on the best-fitting age. We find that the physically allowed range of assumed values for the density and thermal conductivity induces a large uncertainty in the rate of evolution. When realistic uncertainties in the family members' physical parameters are taken into account, we find that the best-fitting age can fall anywhere in the range of 140-320 Myr. Without more information on the physical properties of the family members, it is difficult to place a more firm constraint on Baptistina's age.
Additional Information
© 2012 American Astronomical Society. Received 2012 March 21; accepted 2012 September 6; published 2012 October 11. We thank the referee, Bill Bottke, for his helpful and insightful comments that resulted in a critical reanalysis of the data, greatly improving our results and the manuscript in general. We also thank Bob McMillan for his editing of this manuscript. J.R.M. was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at JPL, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with NASA. Computer simulations for this research were carried out on JPL's Zodiac supercomputer, which is administered by the JPL Supercomputing and Visualization Facility. The supercomputer used in this investigation was provided by funding from the JPL Office of the Chief Information Officer. This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This publication also makes use of data products from NEOWISE, which is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the Planetary Science Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Attached Files
Published - 0004-637X_759_1_14.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 36002
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20121217-090351715
- NASA Postdoctoral Program
- JPL Office of the Chief Information Officer
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Created
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2012-12-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field