Asteroids IV

Description

Over the past decade, asteroids have come to the forefront of planetary science. Scientists across broad disciplines are increasingly recognizing that understanding asteroids is essential to discerning the basic processes of planetary formation, including how their current distribution bespeaks our solar system’s cataclysmic past. For explorers, the nearest asteroids beckon as the most accessible milestones in interplanetary space, offering spaceflight destinations easier to reach than the lunar surface. For futurists, the prospects of asteroids as commercial resources tantalize as a twenty-first-century gold rush, albeit with far greater challenges than faced by nineteenth-century pioneers. For humanity, it is the realization that asteroids matter. It is not a question of if — but when — the next major impact will occur. While the disaster probabilities are thankfully small, fully cataloging and characterizing the potentially hazardous asteroid population remains unfinished business. Asteroids IV sets the latest scientific foundation upon which all these topics and more will be built upon for the future. Nearly 150 international authorities through more than 40 chapters convey the definitive state of the field by detailing our current astronomical, compositional, geological, and geophysical knowledge of asteroids, as well as their unique physical processes and interrelationships with comets and meteorites. Most importantly, this volume outlines the outstanding questions that will focus and drive researchers and students of all ages toward new advances in the coming decade and beyond. Cover Front Matter Contents List of Contributing Authors Scientific Organizing Committee and Acknowledgment of Reviewers Foreword Preface Asteroids: Recent Advances and New Perspectives The Compositional Structure of the Asteroid Belt Mineralogy and Surface Composition of Asteroids Astronomical Observations of Volatiles on Asteroids Space-Based Thermal Infrared Studies of Asteroids Asteroid Thermophysical Modeling Asteroid Photometry Asteroid Polarimetry Radar Observations of Near-Earth and Main-Belt Asteroids Asteroid Models from Multiple Data Sources The Complex History of Trojan Asteroids The Active Asteroids The Near-Earth Object Population: Connections to Comets,Main-Belt Asteroids, and Meteorites Small Near-Earth Asteroids as a Source of Meteorites Meteoroid Streams and the Zodiacal Cloud Identification and Dynamical Properties of Asteroid Families Asteroid Family Physical Properties Collisional Formation and Modeling of Asteroid Families Asteroid Systems: Binaries, Triples, and Pairs Formation and Evolution of Binary Asteroids Hayabusa Sample Return Mission The Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres The Flybys of Asteroids (2867) Šteins, (21) Lutetia, and (4179) Toutatis Phobos and Deimos New Paradigms for Asteroid Formation The Dynamical Evolution of the Asteroid Belt The Yarkovsky and YORP Effects Asteroid Differentiation: Melting and Large-Scale Structure Hydrothermal and Magmatic Fluid Flow in Asteroids Early Impact History and Dynamical Origin ofDifferentiated Meteorites and Asteroids Asteroid Surface Alteration by Space Weathering Processes The Formation and Evolution of Ordinary ChondriteParent Bodies Sources of Water and Aqueous Activity onthe Chondrite Parent Asteroids Global-Scale Impacts Color Section Modeling Asteroid Collisions and Impact Processes The Collisional Evolution of the Main Asteroid Belt Cratering on Asteroids Asteroid Interiors and Morphology Asteroid Surface Geophysics Surveys, Astrometric Follow-Up, and Population Statistics Orbits, Long-Term Predictions, and Impact Monitoring Asteroid Impacts and Modern Civilization: Can We Prevent a Catastrophe? Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids Index