2001/04/30 by Y. R. Fernandez, Y. R. Fernández, David Jewitt +3 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Planetary Science and Exploration #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/320689
12 pages + 1 figure, AASTeX v5.0 preprint format, accepted to appear in The Astrophysical Journal (Letters)
arxiv created 2001/04/30 · openalex publication_date 2001/06/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present radiometric effective radii and visual geometric albedos for six asteroids in comet-like orbits. Our sample has three of the four known retrograde asteroids (1999 LE 31 , 2000 DG 8 , and 2000 HE 46 ) and three objects [(18916) 2000 OG 44 , 2000 PG 3 , and 2000 SB 1 ] on prograde but highly elliptical orbits. These measurements more than double the number of known albedos for asteroids with a Tisserand invariant in the cometary regime. We find that all six of our objects, and nine of the 10 now known, have albedos that are as low as those of active cometary nuclei, which is consistent with their supposed evolutionary connection to that group. This albedo distribution is distinct from that of the whole near-Earth and unusual asteroid population, and the strong correlation between Tisserand invariant and albedo suggests that there is a significant cometary contribution to this asteroid population.