Mid-IR Observations of IRAS, AKARI, WISE/NEOWISE and Subaru for Large Icy Asteroid (704) Interamnia: a New Perspective of Regolith Properties and Water Ice Fraction

Abstract

(704) Interamnia is one of the largest asteroids that locates in the outer main-belt region, which may contain a large amount of water ice underneath its surface. We observe this asteroid using 8.2 m Subaru telescope at mid-infrared wavebands, and utilize thermophysical model for realistic surface layers (RSTPM) to analyze mid-infrared data from Subaru along with those of IRAS, AKARI and WISE/NEOWISE. We optimize the method to convert the WISE magnitude to thermal infrared flux with temperature dependent color corrections, which can provide significant references for main-belt asteroids at a large heliocentric distance with low surface temperature. We derive best-fitting thermal parameters of Interamnia - a mean regolith grain size of $190_{-180}^{+460}\mu \mathrm{m}$, with a roughness of $0.30_{-0.17}^{+0.35}$ and RMS slope of $27_{-9}^{+13}$ degrees, thereby producing thermal inertia ranging from 9 to $92\mathrm{J}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1/2}{\mathrm{K}}^{-1}$ due to seasonal temperature variation. The geometric albedo and effective diameter are evaluated to be $0.0472_{-0.0031}^{+0.0033}$ and $339_{-11}^{+12}\mathrm{km}$, respectively, being indicative of a bulk density of $1.86\pm 0.63g/c{\mathrm{m}}^3$. The low thermal inertia is consistent with typical B/C-type asteroids with $D\ge 100$ km. The tiny regolith grain size suggests the presence of a fine regolith on the surface of Interamnia. Moreover, the seasonal and diurnal temperature distribution indicates that thermal features between southern and northern hemisphere appear to be very different. Finally, we present an estimation of volume fraction of water ice of $9\%\sim 66\%$ from the published grain density and porosity of carbonaceous chondrites.

arXiv comment17 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Optical spectropolarimetry of large C-complex asteroids: polarimetric evidence for heterogeneous surface compositions