The peculiar case of the Agnia asteroid family

Abstract

The Agnia asteroid family, a cluster of asteroids located near semimajor axis a = 2.79 AU , has experienced significant dynamical evolution over its lifetime. The family, which was likely created by the breakup of a diameter D ∼ 50 km parent body, is almost entirely contained within the high-order secular resonance z 1 . This means that unlike other families, Agnia's full extent in proper eccentricity and inclination is a byproduct of the large-amplitude resonant oscillations produced by this resonance. Using numerical integration methods, we found that the spread in orbital angles observed among Agnia family members would have taken at least 40 Myr to create; this sets a lower limit on the family's age. To determine the upper bound on Agnia's age, we used a Monte Carlo model to track how the small members in the family evolve in semimajor axis by Yarkovsky thermal forces. Our results indicate the family is no more than 140 Myr old, with a best-fit age of 100 +30 −20 Myr. Using two independent methods, we also determined that the D ∼ 5 km fragments were ejected from the family-forming event at a velocity near 15 m/s. This velocity is consistent with results from numerical hydrocode simulations of asteroid impacts and observations of other similarly sized asteroid families. Finally, we found that 57% of known Agnia fragments were initially prograde rotators. The reason for this limited asymmetry is unknown, though we suspect it is a fluke produced by the stochastic nature of asteroid disruption events.