AVDELLIDOU , C.

Context. Andesitic meteorites are among the oldest achondrites known to date. They record volcanic events and crust formation episodes in primordial planetesimals that took place about 4.565 Myr ago. However, no analogue for these meteorites has been found in the asteroid population to date. Aims: We searched for spectroscopic analogues of the...

Context. Understanding the conditions that lead to the formation of planetesimals – the building blocks of planets - and their initial size distribution is a central problem of modern planetology. While most of these original planetesimals were accreted onto the terrestrial planets and the cores of the giant planets, some were also stranded in...

Lunar impact flash (LIF) observations typically occur in R, I, or unfiltered light, and are only possible during night, targeting the night side of a 10-60% illumination Moon, while >10°above the observers horizon. This severely limits the potential to observe, and therefore the number of lower occurrence, high energy impacts observed is...

Aims: We carried out a spectroscopic survey in order to investigate the composition of 64 asteroids of the inner main belt, which are leftovers of the original planetesimals of our Solar System (we call them inner main belt planetesimals or IMBPs). Following published methods, we identified IMBPs in the inverse size versus semimajor axis (?)...

Context. The ESA JUICE space mission, on its way to study Jupiter's environment and icy moons, will pass twice through the main asteroid belt. For this reason, the possibility to perform an asteroid flyby has been investigated.Aims. We aim to gain insight into the physical properties of the outer main belt asteroid (223) Rosa, which has been...

Context . Based on the V-shape search method, two families, Athor and Zita, have been identified within the X-complex population of asteroids located in the inner main belt. The Athor family is ~3 Gyr old while the Zita family could be as old as the Solar System. Both families were found to be capable of delivering near-Earth asteroids (NEAs)....

Spacecraft missions have observed regolith blankets of unconsolidated subcentimetre particles on stony asteroids1-3. Telescopic data have suggested the presence of regolith blankets also on carbonaceous asteroids, including (101955) Bennu4 and (162173) Ryugu5. However, despite observations of processes that are capable of comminuting boulders...