Asteroid pairs: method validation and new candidates

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method for identifying asteroid pairs in the main belt, validating it on known pairs, and discovering 10 new probable pairs with ages between 30 and 400 kyr.

Contribution

The study develops and validates a novel pipeline for asteroid pair detection using orbital element analysis and numerical modeling, leading to new candidate discoveries.

Findings

Identified 10 new probable asteroid pairs.

Estimated formation ages between 30 and 400 kyr.

Pipeline validation showed good agreement with known pair ages.

Abstract

An asteroid pair can be described as two asteroids with highly similar heliocentric orbits that are genetically related but not gravitationally bound. They can be produced by asteroid collisions or rotational fission. Although over 200 asteroid pairs are known, many more are remaining to be identified, especially among the newly discovered asteroids. The purpose of our work is to find new asteroid pairs in the inner part of the main belt with a new pipeline for asteroid pair search, as well as to validate the pipeline on a sample of known asteroid pairs. Initially, we select pair candidates in the five-dimensional space of osculating orbital elements. Then the candidates are confirmed using numerical modeling with the backtrack integration of their orbits including the perturbations from the largest main-belt asteroids, as well as the influence of the non-gravitational Yarkovsky effect. We performed a survey of the inner part of the main belt and found 10 new probable asteroid pairs. Their estimated formation ages lie between 30 and 400 kyr. In addition, our pipeline was tested on a sample of 17 known pairs, and our age estimates agreed with the ones indicated in literature in most of the cases.