Optical Observations of Asteroids in Support of ExploreNEOs

Details Optical Observations of Asteroids in Support of ExploreNEOs Optical Observations of Asteroids in Support of ExploreNEOs

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.3935h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #39.35

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We are carrying out ExploreNEOs, a Warm Spitzer project to derive the albedos and diameters of some 700 Near Earth Objects (NEOs). In our results to date (Trilling et al. 2010, Harris et al. 2010), the uncertainties on our derived albedos are 50%, with about half of the error budget deriving from assumed errors in optical magnitude. To reduce these errors, we are carrying out a large campaign of ground-based optical observations of our Spitzer NEO targets, using telescopes with apertures from 0.3 to 8 meters. Here we present preliminary results from observations of 27 NEOs taken at the 1-m Swope Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory and observations of over 115 objects taken from a 0.3-m robotic telescope in New Mexico. The H-magnitudes of some these objects were found, which will be combined with Spitzer data to reduce the uncertainties on the derived diameter and albedo. Light curves were also collected for several of the observed objects. Finally, comparing the observed H-magnitudes with the H-magnitudes from the NASA Horizons database showed no systematic error, however, the 1-sigma scatter was 0.6 magnitudes, due in part to significant lightcurves. Further precise measurements will allow us to improve our thermal modeling results for our Warm Spitzer data. Funding for this work was provided in part by the Spitzer Science Center.

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