Program: GN-2007B-Q-67

Recent discoveries (Nesvorny et al. 2006, Nesvorny & Vokrouhlicky 2006) present a new, stunning opportunity to address some fundamental issues in planetary science, including the rates of processes that physically affect asteroids. The discovery, which we propose to exploit, is a robust, dynamical dating of the formation of asteroid families. Specifically, Nesvorny et al. (2006) and Nesvorny & Vokrouhlicky (2006) identified four new families with ages between 50 and 600 ky. The Datura, Emilkowalski, 1992YC2, and Lucascavin clusters are 450+/-50 thousand years (ky), 220+/-30 ky, 50-250 ky, and 200-600 ky old, respectively. They are the most recent asteroid breakups ever discovered in the main belt. Here, we propose spectroscopic observations of members of these 4 special asteroid families. Our goal is to search for both predicted and serendipitous indications of youthfulness of these asteroids by obtaining observations that enable us to contrast them with similar data previously published for normal, older main belt asteroids.