Shapes, Cratering History, and Densities of the Largest Main-Belt Asteroids

在位于木星和火星轨道之间的主要小行星带中，人们发现了一些围绕着一些最大的小行星运行的卫星。这些研究人员已经获得了望远镜时间来观测主要小行星带中的36颗大型小行星，该仪器将提供对这些小行星的非常高分辨率的观测。它们的形状、大小、存在的任何卫星以及关于小行星组成的信息都将被揭开。所有这些信息将为研究人员提供线索，了解这些多个小行星系统是如何形成的，以及太阳系中的主要行星是如何形成的。这个项目服务于国家利益，促进了我们对太阳系如何在其生命周期内形成和变化的科学理解。调查人员将通过本科生研究项目、新闻稿和社交媒体向学生和公众讲述他们的研究故事。PI还将通过加州科学院为天文馆制作电影。这项系统研究将使用自适应光学仪器来精炼较大主带小行星的多重率，并将寻找小行星的多重率与其组成之间的关系。高角度分辨率使这些小行星的形状模型能够以前所未有的精度进行测量。对这些卫星(卫星)轨道的研究将限制主要小行星的体积密度，并提供关于其物质组成和分布的线索，为解决太阳系中这些多小行星系统的形成提供支持。

Moons have been found orbiting some of the largest asteroids in the main asteroid belt, located between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. These investigators have obtained telescope time to observe thirty-six large asteroids in the main asteroid belt with an instrument that will provide very high resolution observations of these asteroids. Their shapes, sizes, any moons that are present, and information about the asteroids' compositions will be uncovered. All of this information will give the investigators clues about how these multiple-asteroid systems formed and, further, how the major planets in our Solar System formed. This project serves the national interest by advancing our scientific understanding of how our Solar System formed and changed within its lifetime. The investigators will tell the story of their research to both students and the general public through undergraduate student research programs, press releases, and social media outlets. The PI will also develop movies for planetariums through the California Academy of Sciences.This systematic study will use adaptive optics instrumentation to refine the multiplicity rate of larger main-belt asteroids and will search for a relationship between an asteroid's multiplicity and its composition. High angular resolution allows the shape models of these asteroids to be measured to unprecedented accuracy. A study of the orbits of these moons (satellites) will constrain the bulk density of the primary asteroid and provide clues about the composition and distribution of its material, supporting studies addressing the formation of these multiple-asteroid systems in the Solar System.