Secular evolution of asteroid families: the role of Ceres

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the dwarf planet Ceres influences the long-term evolution of asteroid families through a specific secular resonance, affecting their distribution and shape.

Contribution

It identifies the linear nodal secular resonance with Ceres and demonstrates its significant role in shaping asteroid family distributions through numerical simulations.

Findings

Ceres' secular resonance affects asteroid family distributions.

Numerical simulations confirm resonance's role in family shape.

Resonance location correlates with irregular family distributions.

Abstract

We consider the role of the dwarf planet Ceres on the secular dynamics of the asteroid main belt. Specifically, we examine the post impact evolution of asteroid families due to the interaction of their members with the linear nodal secular resonance with Ceres. First, we find the location of this resonance and identify which asteroid families are crossed by its path. Next, we summarize our results for three asteroid families, namely (1726) Hoffmeister, (1128) Astrid and (1521) Seinajoki which have irregular distributions of their members in the proper elements space, indicative of the effect of the resonance. We confirm this by performing a set of numerical simulations, showcasing that the perturbing action of Ceres through its linear nodal secular resonance is essential to reproduce the actual shape of the families.