Asteroid taxonomies are based on observable traits such as morphology or mineralogy. Observations of asteroids are strictly limited, in most cases, to ground-based telescopic remote sensing of the visible and near infrared spectra and radiometry (see Infrared Spectroscopy Radiometry). IR spectra and albedo (q.v.) provide most of our information on most asteroids and are the basis for all the current asteroid taxonomies.
There are currently three published asteroid taxonomic schemes (Tholen, 1984; Barucci et al., 1987; Tedesco et al., 1989). All of these classifications are’ spectral’ in nature. Asteroids that have similar spectra and albedo characteristics are grouped together in a class denoted by a letter or group of letters. Asteroids in subgroups or asteroids with unusual spectra are often assigned multiple letters, the first letter denoting the dominant group and the succeeding letters denoting less prominent spectral affinities or subgroups. Although other workers have made...
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Britt, D.T., Lebofsky, L.A. (1997). Asteroid: Compositional structure and taxonomy . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_21
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