Talk:Asteroid spectral types

I found the following line in many asteroid-type articles:

You can use the "What links here" toolbox link to find asteroids of this type.

This is an unusual means to provide links to further information about a topic. The more appropriate current means, which may not have been available when these lines were added, is to create categories to contain links to articles. With this in mind, I updated the following articles and their corresponding asteroid articles:

• A-type asteroid
• Q-type asteroid
• R-type asteroid
• V-type asteroid

Each time I edited one type article, I discovered a new set of types not mentioned in others. (I am not up on asteroid nomenclature or classification; I'm just making the existing links work with the Wikimedia category system.) When I came across the S- and C-types, I discovered to my horror that not only do they contain many subtypes, but, according to this article, the subtypes are defined differently depending on which classification system is used. With this new bit of information, I no longer trust the "What links here" to give me the most accurate information to implement full categorization.

Might I ask that asteroid experts out there supplement my initial categorization efforts by continuing the process? Alternatively, if someone can explain how to be sure to properly arrange the categories (e.g., should B-type be Tholen or SMASS?), I can create a category structure to match that specification and populate it with the asteroid articles. This is an important issue, because such questions aren't necessarily addressed in the current articles (e.g., B-type asteroid doesn't say whether it's Tholen or SMASS). Thanks for any assistance on this dilemma. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:25, 21 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

Well, I agree, it's a mess allright. The problem is that the scientists haven't come to a consensus, and large numbers of asteroids are likely to be reclassified, and re-reclassified, etc. A stop-gap suggestion would be to just go by whatever the article devoted to a particular asteroid says, and count on future editors to change the category along with the spectral class in the table. I have to say, you've started on a heroic task there.. Deuar 12:28, 12 November 2005 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, but I feel less heroic than Pandoric. ☺ ~ Jeff Q (talk) 20:09, 12 November 2005 (UTC)Reply

Preferably a graph which provides a visual structure. -Craig Pemberton (talk) 17:18, 4 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

Why the J type doesn't show on the main page?--Io Herodotus (talk) 07:42, 17 September 2014 (UTC)Reply

Can we say what resolution spectra are required for these classifications ? And perhaps what instruments the various surveys use ? Does it need spectra or is photometry with narrow bands filters sometimes used ? - Rod57 (talk) 12:38, 11 December 2021 (UTC)Reply