Taxonomic Classification of Asteroids in Photometry with KMTNet

  • Published : 2019.10.14

Abstract

In order to gather clues to surface mineralogy of asteroids, we classify their taxonomy based on their reflected spectra. It is remarkable that a large number of asteroids plotted in the proper orbital element space with distinct colors according to their taxonomic types reveal the dynamical evolution and the structure in the near-Earth space, the main-belt and beyond. Although we have ~1×106 known objects, no more than ~3×103 of them are properly classified taxonomically as visible-near infrared spectroscopy is costly. On the other hand, multi-wavelength broadband photometry in the visible region provides a rather inexpensive alternative tool for approximate taxonomy. Thus we have conducted multi-band observations systematically using Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) with BVRI and griz filters since back in 2015. We then applied aperture photometry with elliptical apertures to fit the trails of objects during the exposures, and classified them with the principle component indices of Ivezic et al. (2001). We will make use of our new, three dimensional asteroid classification scheme for the next step.

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