Maria's Family: Physical Structure and Possible Implications for the Origin of Giant NEAs

Abstract An extensive analysis of the Maria family is presented. A reconstruction of the original ejection velocity field of the fragments suggests that a substantial number of relatively large fragments may have been injected into the neighboring 3/1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter. This also agrees with an analysis of the size distribution of the family, suggesting that about 10 objects in the size range 15–30 km have probably been lost. As a consequence, Maria's family can be seen as one of the most promising candidates for the source of the “giant” near-Earth asteroids 433 Eros and 1036 Ganymed. This is also supported by an extensive spectroscopic survey of the family members in the spectral range 5000–10000 A. The spectra obtained are very similar and are consistent with the known spectra of Eros and Ganymed.

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