Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Juno and Eunomia

Let's investigate Juno, the third-discovered and the brightest of the first four. Juno semimajors 2.67 AU, a little closer-in than Pallas especially at perihelion 2 AU. But it is much smaller than the others noted at the time. We saw it as early as we did because, at 0.238 albedo, it's twice as bright as our Moon. It's probably stony. Stony rocks are what we get in the sub-Earth realm, like Atira. 15 Eunomia is slightly larger but darker and further: 2.644 AU semimajor, innermost 2.15 AU. We'll check up on that too.

From 2 AU, Juno and maybe Eunomia could deliver chondrites (not carbonaceous!) to Earth.

I'd expect these two to be more like Pallas than like Vesta. Vesta has several excuses: a differentiated body, formed near Mars, been hit very hard by other rocks. Any of that could burn off its soot and boil its ice. Juno and Eunomia be more difficult to explain. Eunomia in particular is resonant with Mars so like Hygiea and Pallas on the other side. More like Hygiea, Eunomia doesn't have a Ceres to protect it. Eunomia isn't long for where it is - and, conversely, shouldn't have been there long.

I think these formed below 2 AU almost where Mars is at, certainly below Vesta. I think close-passes with Vesta might have pulled them out (and Vesta in), followed by the arrival of Ceres and formation of the Ceres-Pallas duet.

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