S-type asteroid
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S-type asteroids, or silicaceous asteroids, are of a stony composition, hence the name. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the second most common after the C-type.
Characteristics
S-types are moderately bright (with an albedo of 0.10 to 0.22) and consist mainly of iron- and magnesium-silicates. They are dominant in the inner asteroid belt within 2.2 AU, common in the central belt within about 3 AU, but become rare farther out. The largest is 15 Eunomia (about 330 km wide across its longest dimension), with the next largest members by diameter being 3 Juno, 29 Amphitrite, 532 Herculina and 7 Iris. These largest S-types are visible in 10x50 binoculars at most oppositions; the brightest, 7 Iris, can occasionally become brighter than +7.0, which is a higher magnitude than any asteroid except the unusually reflective 4 Vesta.
Their spectrum has a moderately steep slope at wavelengths shorter than 0.7 µm, and has moderate to weak absorption features around 1 µm and 2 µm. The 1 µm absorption is indicative of the presence of silicates (stony minerals). Often there is also a broad but shallow absorption feature centered near 0.63 µm. The composition of these asteroids is similar to a variety of stony meteorites which share similar spectral characteristics.
S-group asteroids
SMASS classification
In the SMASS classification, several generally "stony" types of asteroids are brought together into a wider S-group which contains the following types:
- A-type
- K-type
- L-type
- Q-type
- R-type
- a core S-type for asteroids having the most "typical" spectra for the S-group
- Sa, Sk, Sl, Sq, and Sr-types containing transition objects between the core S-type and the A, K, L, Q, and R-types, respectively.
This whole "S" assemblage of asteroids is spectrally quite distinct from the carbonaceous C-group and the mostly metallic X-group.
Tholen classification
In the Tholen classification the S-type is a very broad grouping which includes all the types in the SMASS S-group except for the A, Q, and R, which have particularly strong "stony" absorption features around 1 μm.
See also
References
- Bus, S. J.; Binzel, R. P. (2002). "Phase II of the Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopy Survey: A feature-based taxonomy". Icarus. 158 (1): 146–177. Bibcode:2002Icar..158..146B. doi:10.1006/icar.2002.6856.