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Description
In this work, we investigate the size, thermal inertia, surface roughness, and geometric albedo of 10 Vesta family asteroids using the Advanced Thermophysical Model (ATM), based on the thermal-infrared data acquired by mainly NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Here, we show that the average thermal inertia and geometric albedo of the investigated Vesta family members are 42J/m^2^/s^1/2^/K and 0.314, respectively, where the derived effective diameters are less than 10km. Moreover, the family members have a relatively low roughness fraction on their surfaces. The similarity in thermal inertia and geometric albedo among the V-type Vesta family members may reveal their close connection in origin and evolution. As the fragments of the cratering event of Vesta, the family members may have undergone a similar evolutionary process, thereby leading to very close thermal properties. Finally, we estimate their regolith grain sizes with different volume filling factors.
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