Bus demeo taxonomy9/21/2023 ![]() TypeĪsteroids with moderate albedos and an absorption feature longward of 0.75 µm. For example, some of the asteroid types found in the main belt and the Trojan swarm are shown below. As many asteroids reflect long wavelength light more efficiently than short wavelength light, astronomers and planetary scientists often to refer to asteroids as “red” or “reddish” even if to the naked eye they would not appear red. The main asteroid belt has a mix of asteroids of many different types with very different albedos and some with very distinct spectral “fingerprints.” In contrast, the outer Solar System (including the Trojan Asteroids population) is dominated by dark (low albedo) asteroids with relatively featureless spectra, with still a lot of diversity in the “color” of the asteroids based on how efficiently they reflect longer wavelength (red) light compared to shorter wavelength (blue) light. In these systems asteroids are placed in to groups based on how the reflect light, specifically their total reflectance (albedo), the difference in reflectivity of different wavelengths of light (generally referred to as the “color” of the asteroid), and the more detailed shape of the asteroid’s spectrum (the “fingerprint” of how the asteroid reflects many different wavelengths of light). The “Tholen classification system” was published in 1989 and it, and other classification systems based upon it (such as the “Bus-DeMeo” classification system), are still commonly used today. Scientists have designed various methods to classify the over 100,000 known and numbered asteroids to make sense of this diversity. Credits for each photo: Gaspra, Borrelly: NASA / JPL / Ted Stryk. A montage of some asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft that illustrates the difference in reflectiveness (albedo) in the asteroid and comet population, created by Emily Lakdawalla.
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