New Constraints from STEREO on the Population of Vulcanoids Interior to Mercury

Details New Constraints from STEREO on the Population of Vulcanoids Interior to Mercury New Constraints from STEREO on the Population of Vulcanoids Interior to Mercury

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.5004s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #50.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.512

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

The Vulcanoid region is a gravitationally stable region in which small bodies may orbit interior to Mercury. The discovery of such bodies could provide important new insights into both the dynamical history of the inner solar system (e.g., regarding early migration) and clues to the composition and physical conditions of the primordial solar nebula interior to 0.2 AU.
We used early image data from NASA's STEREO spacecraft to conduct a new and deeper search for the Vulcanoids. STEREO's unprecedented coronagraphic capabilities enabled us to make a search that is nearly 40 times more sensitive than any in the past.
We chose five 48-hour periods spaced 10 days apart in which to search for Vulcanoids. This allowed us to sparsely sample the 40-day orbital periods characteristic of the hypothesized Vulcanoid population. Level 0.5 STEREO HI-1 images from these five periods were obtained from the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) instrument website. SECCHI contains five telescopes to observe the solar corona and inner heliosphere. To remove "background” coronal gradients from the images, the background at each pixel in the image was calculated using circular apertures. The average value of all image pixels lying more than 5 (to exclude the HI-1 point-spread function), but less than 12 pixels from the central pixel, was calculated using an outlier-resistant mean technique. The resulting background image was then subtracted from the input image.
No Vulcanoid candidates were found down to an estimated limit at V=12.5. However, numerous background asteroids were detected at expected locations and with expected brightnesses. Our search has provided a significantly ( 40x) improved constraint on the Vulcanoid population by reaching V=12.5 (image average).

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