Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.5106m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #51.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.491
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
MESSENGER's arrival in near-Mercury space enables a search for the hypothetical population of "vulcanoids" from a vantage never before attempted. If vulcanoids exist, they are expected to orbit inside Mercury's orbit, at 0.08 to 0.21 AU. Previous vulcanoid searches (most notably from SOHO: Durda et al. 2000, Icarus 148, 312) have revealed no bodies larger than 60 km diameter. With MESSENGER, we can search for vulcanoids to at least 15 km (64x smaller in mass), but limited to the outer 50% of the vulcanoid cloud's volume. Using the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), we cover a 10.5x10.5-deg field in a single 1024x1024 CCD image. We use the "clear" filter with the maximum WAC exposure of 10 seconds. We observe both east and west of the Sun, with a 1x2 mosaic on each side, covering 10 deg of longitude and 19 deg of latitude (roughly 8x15 Mkm at the distance of the Sun). Our observation cadence allows us to definitively reject cosmic rays and to distinguish (from motion) the class of object (e.g., vulcanoid vs. near- or inner-Earth asteroid). Spacecraft pointing restrictions limit solar elongation to > 30 deg. Therefore, we will always observe near spacecraft perihelia ( 0.3 AU) to search as close to the Sun as possible. There are 12 such opportunities prior to Mercury orbit insertion in March 2011, but we cannot observe during certain mission-critical activities. Our first data (240 images spanning 9 days) were acquired in June 2008; this sequence was designed to refine our observing techniques, assess limiting magnitudes, verify detectability of known objects, and make an initial search. We have verified that we reach at least our nominal goal of Vmag=8. Data analysis is ongoing; we will describe the program and give an assessment of the data.
Chabot Nancy Lynne
Chapman Clark R.
Gold Robert E.
Hawkins Eduard S.
Merline William Jon
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