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TheVesta family (adj.Vestian;FIN:401) is afamily ofasteroids. The cratering family is located in the innerasteroid belt in the vicinity of its namesake and principal body,4 Vesta. It is one of the largest asteroid families with more than 15,000 known members and consists of mostly brightV-type asteroids, so-called "vestoids".
The Vestian asteroids consist of4 Vesta, the second-most-massive of all asteroids (mean diameter of 530 km), and many small asteroids below 10 km diameter. The brightest of these,1929 Kollaa and2045 Peking, have anabsolute magnitude of 12.2, which would give them a radius of about 7.5 km assuming the same high albedo as4 Vesta.
Thefamily originated from an impact on asteroid4 Vesta, with the giant south-polar crater the likely impact site. The family are thought to be the source of theHED meteorites.
The Vesta family also includes a fewJ-type asteroids (related to theV-type), which are thought to have come from the deeper layers of Vesta's crust, and are similar to thediogenite meteorites.
AHCM numerical analysis (by Zappala 1995) determined a large group of 'core' family members, whoseproper orbital elements lie in the approximate ranges:
| ap | ep | ip | |
|---|---|---|---|
| min | 2.26 AU | 0.075 | 5.6° |
| max | 2.48 AU | 0.122 | 7.9° |
This gives the approximate boundaries of the family. At the presentepoch, the range ofosculatingorbital elements of these core members is:
| a | e | i | |
|---|---|---|---|
| min | 2.26 AU | 0.035 | 5.0° |
| max | 2.48 AU | 0.162 | 8.3° |
The Zappala 1995 analysis found 235 core members. A search of a recent proper-element database (AstDys) for 96,944minor planets in 2005 yielded 6,051 objects (about 6% of the total) lying within the Vesta-family region as per the first table above.
Error: No valid link was found at the end of line 5.
| Name | Abs. Mag | Size (km) | proper a (AU) | proper e | proper i |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Vesta | 3.25 | 525 | 2.3615 | 0.099 | 6.393 |
| 63 Ausonia | 7.13 | 116 | 2.3952 | 0.121 | 6.216 |
| 556 Phyllis | 9.54 | 36 | 2.4654 | 0.119 | 6.065 |
| 1145 Robelmonte | 11.47 | 24 | 2.4243 | 0.124 | 6.598 |
| 2045 Peking | 12.21 | 9.7 | 2.3799 | 0.090 | 6.685 |
| 2346 Lilio | 12.52 | 10 | 2.3712 | 0.113 | 6.904 |
| 3376 Armandhammer | 12.53 | 7.9 | 2.3488 | 0.096 | 7.079 |
| 1906 Naef | 12.54 | 7.9 | 2.3736 | 0.099 | 6.405 |
| 2590 Mourao | 12.56 | 7.9 | 2.3425 | 0.097 | 6.762 |
| 2086 Newell | 12.57 | 6.1 | 2.4015 | 0.115 | 6.028 |
Spectroscopic analyses have shown that some of the largest Vestians are in fact interlopers. They are not of theV orJ spectral class, but have similar orbital elements by coincidence. These include306 Unitas,442 Eichsfeldia,1697 Koskenniemi,1781 Van Biesbroeck,2024 McLaughlin,2029 Binomi,2086 Newell,2346 Lilio, and others. (Identified by inspection of thePDS asteroid taxonomy data set).
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