The Bias-Corrected Taxonomic Distribution of Mission-Accessible Small Near-Earth Objects

Although they are thought to compose the majority of the Near-Earth object (NEO) population, the small (d < 1 km) near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) have not yet been studied as thoroughly as their larger cousins. Sub-kilometer objects are amongst the most abundant newly discovered NEOs and are often targets of opportunity, observable for only a few days to weeks after their discovery. Even at their brightest (V ~ 18), these asteroids are faint enough that they must be observed with large ground-based telescopes.The Mission Accessible Near-Earth Object Survey (MANOS) began in August 2013 as a multi-year physical characterization survey that was awarded survey status by NOAO. MANOS will target several hundred mission-accessible NEOs across visible and near-infrared wavelengths, ultimately providing a comprehensive catalog of physical properties (astrometry, light curves, spectra).Fifty-seven small, mission-accessible NEAs were observed between mid 2013 and mid 2015 using GMOS at Gemini North & South observatories as well as the DeVeny spectrograph at Lowell Observatory's Discovery Channel Telescope. Archival data of 43 objects from the MIT-UH-IRTF Joint Campaign for NEO Spectral Reconnaissance (PI R. Binzel) were also used. Taxonomic classifications were obtained by fitting our spectra to the mean reflectance spectra of the Bus asteroid taxonomy (Bus & Binzel 2002). Small NEAs are the likely progenitors of meteorites; an improved understanding of the abundance of meteorite parent body types in the NEO population improves understanding of how the two populations are related as well as the biases Earth's atmosphere imposes upon the meteorite collection.We present classifications for these objects as well as results for the debiased distribution of taxa(as a proxy for composition) as a function of object size and compare to the observed fractions of ordinary chondritemeteorites and asteroids with d > 1 km. Amongst the smallest NEOs we find an unexpected distribution of taxonomic types that differs from both large NEOs and meteorites.We acknowledge funding support from NASA NEOO grant number NNX14AN82G.