Revising the age for the Baptistina asteroid family using WISE/NEOWISE data

TL;DR

This study uses WISE/NEOWISE data and numerical modeling to estimate the Baptistina asteroid family's age, highlighting how uncertainties in physical parameters affect age estimates, resulting in a broad age range.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining infrared data with numerical evolution models to refine asteroid family age estimates considering physical parameter uncertainties.

Findings

Best-fitting age range is 140-320 million years.

Physical parameter uncertainties significantly affect age estimates.

More data on physical properties are needed for precise dating.

Abstract

We have used numerical routines to model the evolution of a simulated Baptistina family to constrain its age in light of new measurements of the diameters and albedos of family members from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. We also investigate the effect of varying the assumed physical and orbital parameters on the best-fitting age. We find that the physically allowed range of assumed values for the density and thermal conductivity induces a large uncertainty in the rate of evolution. When realistic uncertainties in the family members' physical parameters are taken into account we find the best-fitting age can fall anywhere in the range of 140-320 Myr. Without more information on the physical properties of the family members it is difficult to place a more firm constraint on Baptistina's age.