ATLAS c-o colors and classification of asteroids

The Themis and Koronis families are known to be relatively pure C- and S-type Bus-DeMeo taxonomic families, respectively, and the extracted color data from the ATLAS broadband c- and o-filters of these two families are used to demonstrate that the ATLAS c-o color is a sufficient parameter to distinguish between the C- and S-type taxonomies.

The Vesta and Nysa-Polana families are known to display a mixture of taxonomies possibly due to Vesta's differentiated parent body origin and Nysa-Polana actually consisting of two nested families with differing taxonomies. Our data show that the Flora family also displays a large degree of taxonomic mixing and the data reveal a substantial H-magnitude dependence on color. We propose and exclude several interpretations for the observed taxonomic mix.