Abstrakt
The Schulhof family, a tight cluster of small asteroids around the central main belt body (2384). Schulhof, belongs to a so far rare class of very young families (estimated ages less than 1 Myr).
Characterization of these asteroid clusters may provide important insights into the physics of the catastrophic disruption of their parent body. The case of the Schulhof family has been up to now complicated by the existence of two proposed epochs of its origin.
In this paper, we first use our own photometric observations, as well as archival data, to determine the rotation rate and spin axis orientation of the largest fragment (2384). Schulhof.
Our data also allow us to better constrain the absolute magnitude of this asteroid, and thus also improve the determination of its geometric albedo. Next, using the up-to-date catalog of asteroid orbits, we perform a new search of smaller members in the Schulhof family, increasing their number by 50%.
Finally, the available data are used to access Schulhof's family age anew. We now find that the younger of the previously proposed two ages of this family is not correct, resulting from a large orbital uncertainty of single-opposition members.
Our new runs reveal a single age solution of about 800 kyr with a realistic uncertainty of 200 kyr.