Understanding the Distribution of Near-Earth Asteroids
Authors:
Bottke, W. F., Jr.; Jedicke, R.; Morbidelli, A.; Petit, J.-M.; Gladman,
B.
Affiliation:
Southwest Research Institute 1050 Walnut St, Suite 426 Boulder, CO 80302
Journal:
Science, Vol. 288, pp. 2190-2194 (2000).
Publication Date:
06/2000
Origin:
AUTHOR
Keywords:
NEAs, Asteroids, Near-Earth, Dynamics,
Bibliographic Code:
2000Sci..288..2190B
Abstract
We have deduced the orbital distributions of the near-Earth asteroids
(NEAs) by (i) numerically integrating NEAs from their
source regions to their observed orbits, (ii) estimating the observational
biases and size distribution associated with asteroids on
those orbits, and (iii) creating a model population that can be fit
to the known NEAs. We predict there are ~900 H < 18 (i.e.,
km-sized) NEAs, 29%, 65%, and 6% which reside on Amor, Apollo, and
Aten orbits, respectively. These results suggest that
roughly 40% of the km-sized NEAs have been found. The remainder, on
highly eccentric and inclined orbits, are more difficult to
detect.