Rapid response near-infrared spectrophotometric characterization of Near Earth Objects
Abstract
Small NEOs are, as a whole, poorly characterized, and we know nothing about the physical properties of the majority of all NEOs. The rate of NEO discoveries is increasing each year, and projects to determine the physical properties of NEOs are lagging behind. NEOs are faint, and generally even fainter by the time that follow-up characterizations can be made days or weeks later. There is a need for a high-throughput, high-efficiency physical characterization strategy in which hundreds of faint NEOs can be characterized each year. Broadband photometry in the near-infrared is sufficiently diagnostic to assign taxonomic types, and hence constrain both the individual and ensemble properties of NEOs. We will present results from our recently initiated program of rapid response near-infrared spectrophotometric characterization of NEOs. We are using UKIRT (on Mauna Kea) and the RATIR instrument on the 1.5m telescope at the San Pedro Martir Observatory (Mexico) to allow us to make observations most nights of the year in robotic/queue mode. This technique is powerful and fast. We have written automated software that allows us to observe NEOs very soon after discovery. Our targets are NEOs that are generally too faint for other characterization techniques. We are on pace to characterize hundreds of NEOs per year.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #46
- Pub Date:
- November 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014DPS....4621308M