Fugitives from the Eos family: First spectroscopic confirmation

The fact that some asteroids presently located in the 9/4 mean-motion reson ance with Jupiter could be "Eos fugitives," that is, original members of th is asteroid family injected into the resonance and experiencing a gradual e ccentricity increase, was first suggested a few years ago (Morbidelli, A., V. Zappala, M, Moons, A. Cellino, and R. Gonczi 1995, Icarus 118, 132-154), We present here the results of a campaign of spectroscopic observations of candidate Eos fugitives, and we confirm that some of these objects should come from this family, according to their observed spectral characteristics . We find also indications that these objects are probably relatively young . We can conclude that Eos fugitives are a first example of family objects observed during the dynamical process of leaving the asteroid main belt. Th e results confirm current ideas about the dynamics governing bodies injecte d into the 9/4 resonance. This can be important also from the point of view of a possible relationship between the Eos family and CV/CO chondrites as suggested by spectral analogies. (C) 2000 Academic Press.