A Spectroscopic And Photometric Survey Of Selected Near-earth Asteroids: Results From 2008-2012.
Abstract
Over the past four years we have used the dual-channel optical spectrometer (DBSP) at the Palomar 200-inch telescope (P200) to collect low-resolution spectroscopy of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and have been awarded, on average, three nights per semester. Additionally, we have ample access to the JPL Table Mountain 0.6-m (TMO) telescope for time-resolved Bessel BVRI photometry. Undergraduate students from the CURE program (Consortium for Undergraduate Research Experience) have provided a large fraction of the observing effort at TMO. With these two telescopes, we strove to characterize all bright (V<17) objects of interest, limited primarily by weather, as they become available at our latitude. Our focus has been Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), planetary radar targets, and low delta-V near-Earth asteroids (as potential mission targets). In this paper we will present our observational results for 150 NEAs. Our data products are diverse, and can include taxonomic classification, broad-band colors, rotational period, solar phase behavior and absolute magnitude, and 3-d shape/pole models derived from lightcurve inversion. We will discuss the variability between main-belt and near-Earth spectral families, quantify differences between PHA and background near-Earth populations, and present our first attempts to generate a spectral photometry using solely near-Earth asteroids. This research was funded by NASA. The student participation was supported by the National Science Foundation under REU grant 0852088 to Cal State LA.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #44
- Pub Date:
- October 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012DPS....4411013H