Catalina Sky Survey II, a Next-Generation Survey with Small Binocular Telescopes

Details Catalina Sky Survey II, a Next-Generation Survey with Small Binocular Telescopes Catalina Sky Survey II, a Next-Generation Survey with Small Binocular Telescopes

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.1311l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #13.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1054

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Scientific paper

The Congress has directed NASA to develop a Near-Earth Object (NEO) survey program to detect, track, catalog, and characterize NEOs ≥ 140 meters in diameter by 2020. We are studying one possible approach, the Catalina Sky Survey II (CSS-II), a dedicated, low-cost, rapid-response, advanced survey that could be quickly deployed. CSS-II will dovetail with the planned capabilities of LSST and Pan-STARRS (PS), and add important new capabilities for NEO characterization and follow up that other surveys will not have. At the core of our proposal is three Small Binocular Telescopes (SBTs) using existing mirrors from the former Multiple Mirror Telescope. Working individually from a single observing site, each SBT will have the light grasp of a 2.4-meter telescope. Working together, they will be equivalent to a single telescope with a 4.2-meter mirror. Our approach has many advantages, including economy, 100 percent commitment to NEO search, low risk relative to other approaches, the ability to provide characterization of threatening objects, scalability, and the addition of significant new search capacity. The characterization potential of the mixed-use survey programs of LSST and PS will be valuable, but limited. Determining impact energy is vital to mitigation strategies. Impact energy follows from mass and velocity. Velocity is obtained from the orbital solution, but mass requires size and composition. Both size (through albedo) and composition can be significantly constrained with low-resolution spectroscopy covering the region from 0.35 to 2.4 microns. Shapes and rotation rates can best be obtained through time-series studies during close approaches.
We will describe some preliminary designs for the CSS-II, the flexibility afforded by its multiple, independently-targeted mount design, freedom to adopt new observing strategies, and the potential for generating valuable science through a systematic spectrographic study of the asteroid population as part of its search for hazardous objects.

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