Polarimetric Study of Main Belt and Near-Earth Asteroids

This work briefly presents the results of polarimetric observations of main belt and near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) carried out at the telescopes of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and the ‘‘Terskol Peak’’ Observatory. Phase-polarization curves were constructed for 32 NEAs, with such data being obtained for the first time for most of these objects. This allowed for a more precise determination of the parameters of the polarization curves at large phase angles. For the Main Belt asteroids, a comparison was made between the morphological phase curves of the degree of polarization and the most common spectral classifications (Tholen, SMASSII, Mahlke). It was established that the phase-dependencies of the degree of polarization of asteroids show the least scatter when compared with the Mahlke classification, while the phase curves of the degree of polarization of asteroids demonstrate significant deviations with the Tholen and SMASSII classifications. The results confirm the high significance of polarimetry as an independent tool for diagnosing the composition and structure of asteroid surfaces.