Spectral decomposition of asteroid Itokawa based on principal component analysis

Abstract

The heliocentric stratification of asteroid spectral types may hold important information on the early evolution of the Solar System. Asteroid spectral taxonomy is based largely on principal component analysis. However, how the surface properties of asteroids, such as the composition and age, are projected in the principal-component (PC) space is not understood well. We decompose multi-band disk-resolved visible spectra of the Itokawa surface with principal component analysis (PCA) in comparison with main-belt asteroids. The obtained distribution of Itokawa spectra projected in the PC space of main-belt asteroids follows a linear trend linking the Q-type and S-type regions and is consistent with the results of space-weathering experiments on ordinary chondrites and olivine, suggesting that this trend may be a space-weathering-induced spectral evolution track for S-type asteroids. Comparison with space-weathering experiments also yield a short average surface age (< a few million years) for Itokawa, consistent with the cosmic-ray-exposure time of returned samples from Itokawa. The Itokawa PC score distribution exhibits asymmetry along the evolution track, strongly suggesting that space weathering has begun saturated on this young asteroid. The freshest spectrum found on Itokawa exhibits a clear sign for space weathering, indicating again that space weathering occurs very rapidly on this body. We also conducted PCA on Itokawa spectra alone and compared the results with space-weathering experiments. The obtained results indicate that the first principal component of Itokawa surface spectra is consistent with spectral change due to space weathering and that the spatial variation in the degree of space weathering is very large (a factor of three in surface age), which would strongly suggest the presence of strong regional/local resurfacing process(es) on this small asteroid.