Origin of the Basaltic Asteroid 1459 Magnya: A Dynamical and Mineralogical Study of the Outer Main Belt

The recent discovery of a relatively small basaltic asteroid in the outer main belt with no apparent link to (4) Vesta raised several hypotheses on its origin. We present the results of a dynamical and mineralogical study of the region near (1459) Magnya intended to establish its origin. The dynamical analysis shows that the region is filled with high-order two-body and three-body mean motion resonances and nonlinear secular resonances, which can lead to slow chaotic diffusion. The mineralogical analysis has not identified any other asteroid with a composition similar to Magnya, nor the presence of fragments that could be securely related to the catastrophic disruption of a differentiated parent body. The various scenarios for the origin of Magnya are also discussed in the face of both the results presented here and recently published results.