Understanding the Distribution of Near-Earth Asteroids
 Authors:

                  Bottke, W. F., Jr.; Jedicke, R.; Morbidelli, A.; Petit, J.-M.; Gladman, B.
 Affiliation:

                  Southwest Research Institute 1050 Walnut St, Suite 426 Boulder, CO 80302
 Journal:

                  Science, Vol. 288, pp. 2190-2194 (2000).
 Publication Date:

                  06/2000
 Origin:

                  AUTHOR
 Keywords:

                  NEAs, Asteroids, Near-Earth, Dynamics,
 Bibliographic Code:

                  2000Sci..288..2190B
 

                                            Abstract

We have deduced the orbital distributions of the near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) by (i) numerically integrating NEAs from their
source regions to their observed orbits, (ii) estimating the observational biases and size distribution associated with asteroids on
those orbits, and (iii) creating a model population that can be fit to the known NEAs. We predict there are ~900 H < 18 (i.e.,
km-sized) NEAs, 29%, 65%, and 6% which reside on Amor, Apollo, and Aten orbits, respectively. These results suggest that
roughly 40% of the km-sized NEAs have been found. The remainder, on highly eccentric and inclined orbits, are more difficult to
detect.