Polarimetric study of main belt and near-Earth asteroids

This work briefly presents the results of polarimetric observations of main belt and near-Earthasteroids (NEAs) carried out at the telescopes of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and the"Terskol Peak" Observatory. Phase-polarization curves were constructed for 32 NEAs, with suchdata being obtained for the first time for most of these objects. This allowed for a more precisedetermination of the parameters of the polarization curves at large phase angles. For the Main Beltasteroids, a comparison was made between the morphological phase curves of the degree of polarization and the most common spectral classifications (Tholen, SMASSII, Mahlke). It was establishedthat the phase-dependencies of the degree of polarization of asteroids show the least scatter whencompared with the Mahlke classification, while the phase curves of the degree of polarization of asteroids demonstrate significant deviations with the Tholen and SMASSII classifications. The resultsconfirm the high significance of polarimetry as an independent tool for diagnosing the compositionand structure of asteroid surfaces