Surface composition of Hungaria asteroids from the analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey colors

¹ Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. Ignacio de la Roza 590 oeste, 5400 Rivadavia-San Juan, Argentina e-mail: mcanada@casleo.gov.ar
² Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito – CONICET, Av. España 1512 sur, J5402DSP San Juan, Argentina

Received: 11 February 2008
Accepted: 18 May 2008

Abstract

Aims. We present the results of a taxonomic classification defined using multiband photometry of Hungaria asteroids. The aim of this work is to analyze the compositional diversity of this population.

Methods. Photometric observations of 334 Hungaria asteroids were taken from the Moving Object Catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By means of least squares fitting, a linear function was found to describe the flux data of the Sloan observations and the slope of each spectrum. Each spectrum was then normalized to 6230 Å. The taxonomic type of each object was found by calculating the dissimilarities between the individual spectra and the mean spectra representing the different classes.

Results. We found that a large number of objects in our Hungarias sample are X-types as expected ( of the sample), but we also found a large number of C-type (), and S-type () asteroids and a small number of objects belonging to other taxonomic types. The C-types are not formed originally in this region of the inner main belt, and their presence in this zone could be an indication that there is a dynamical mechanism that is responsible for transporting objects from the the main belt to the inner Solar System.