Bibcode
Campins, H.; Licandro, J.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #47, #106.05
Advertised on:
11
2015
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Near-Earth asteroid (4015) Wilson-Harrington is particularly interesting
for a number of reasons. It has displayed cometary activity, hence its
designation as comet 107P, and since Wilson-Harrington likely originated
in the main asteroid belt (Bottke at al. 2002a), it could also be called
a Main-belt Comet. This object has been linked to fireballs capable of
producing recoverable meteorites (Campins and Swindle 1998), and it is a
potential target of spacecraft missions. We have carried out
spectroscopic and dynamical studies of Wilson-Harrington and we narrow
its likely origin to either the Polana or the Themis asteroid families.
We present new visible and near-infrared spectra of Wilson-Harrington
that show significant similarities with members of the Themis and Polana
families. These spectral parallels are consistent with dynamical
arguments that connect the current orbit of Wilson-Harrington with each
of these two families. However, it is not clear at this time which of
the families is the more likely origin for Wilson-Harrington. Our work
also has implications on sources of primitive meteorites.