Low-Albedo and Inclination Asteroid Families as Tracers for Water and Organics in the Inner Solar System

Collisional impacts between asteroid-sized objects are common in our solar system history and have played a significant role in forming asteroid families [1]. Low-albedo (geometric albedo < 0.07) and low-inclination (i < 15o) asteroid families in the inner main belt (IMB) between the v6 secular resonance at ~2.15 AU and the 3:1 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter at ~2.5 AU are particularly intriguing because they were proposed to be the possible sources of low-albedo and water-rich (hereafter primitive) near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) [2, 3]. Primitive NEAs are the parent bodies of the least-altered meteorites, the carbonaceous chondrites, and harbor valuable historical records of the early solar system [4]. These NEAs are rich in water and carbonaceous materials, critical key elements relevant to the origin of life on Earth. Investigating the origin and source of primitive NEAs in the IMB will help us trace the origin of water and complex organics that may have been delivered to Earth by these NEAs. Here, we propose to use JWST's NIRSpec Integral Field Unit (IFU) to acquire spectra (0.6-5.3 µm) of IMB family members and directly compare them to those of primitive NEAs to test the dynamical theories that postulate that the IMB region is the source of primitive NEAs.