Phase reddening on asteroid Bennu from visible and near-infrared spectroscopy
S. Fornasier, P. H. Hasselmann, J. D. P Deshapriya, M. A. Barucci, B. E. Clark, A. Praet, V. E. Hamilton, A. Simon, J-Y. Li, E. A. Cloutis, F. Merlin, X-D. Zou, D. S. Lauretta
备注：
17 pages, 12 figures, Astron. and Astroph., in press
The NASA mission OSIRIS-REx has been observing near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in close proximity since December 2018. In this work, we investigate spectral phase reddening -- that is, the variation of spectral slope with phase angle -- on Bennu using spectra acquired by the OSIRIS-REx Visible and InfraRed Spectrometer (OVIRS) covering a phase angle range of 8-130$^{o}$. We investigate this process at the global scale and for some localized regions of interest (ROIs), including boulders, craters, and the designated sample collection sites of the OSIRIS-REx mission. Bennu has a globally negative spectra slope, which is typical of B-type asteroids. The spectral slope gently increases in a linear way up to a phase angle of 90$^{\circ}$, where it approaches zero. The spectral phase reddening is monotonic and wavelength-dependent with highest values in the visible range. Its coefficient is 0.00044 $μ$m$^{-1} ~deg^{-1}$ in the 0.55-2.5 $μ$m range.
For observations of Bennu acquired at high phase angle (130$^{\circ}$), phase reddening increases exponentially. Similar behavior was reported in the literature for the carbonaceous chondrite Mukundpura in spectra acquired at extreme geometries. Some ROIs, including the sample collection site, Nightingale, have a steeper phase reddening coefficient than the global average, potentially indicating a surface covered by fine material with high micro-roughness. The gentle spectral phase reddening effect on Bennu is similar to that observed in ground-based measurements of other B-type asteroids, but much lower than that observed for other low-albedo bodies such as Ceres or comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Monotonic reddening may be associated with the presence of fine particles at micron scales and/or of particles with fractal structure that introduce micro- and sub-micro roughness across the surface of Bennu.
In this work, we investigate the thermophysical properties of OSIRIS-REx target asteroid (101955) Bennu (hereafter, Bennu), where thermal inertia plays an important role in understanding the nature of the asteroid's surface, and will definitely provide substantial information for the sampling return mission. Using a thermophysical model incorporating the recently updated 3D radar-derived shape model \citep{Nolan2013} and mid-infrared observations of Spitzer-PUI, Spitzer-IRAC, Herschel/PACS and ESO VLT/VISIR \citep{Muller2012,Emery2014}, we derive the surface thermophysical properties of Bennu.…
From Jan. 6, 2019 to Feb. 18, 2019, OSIRIS-REx observed asteroid (101955) Bennu ejecting 11 plumes of dust, of which part is escaping and another part is re-captured by the asteroid. The relative magnitudes of the typical forces acting on the emitted dust are quite different from the environments of the planets and other minor planets in the solar system. Here we show that ejected dust grains from the surface of Bennu can be caught in the gravitational field of Bennu. To this end, we calculated numerically the trajectories of dust grains of various sizes, from the 0.1mum to the ten millimeter …
We have obtained polarimetric measurements of asteroid (101955) Bennu, a presumably primitive near-Earth object (NEO) that is the target of NASA's sample return mission OSIRIS-REx. During our observing campaign, Bennu was visible from Earth under a wide range of illumination conditions, with phase-angle in the range 16 to 57 degrees. Together with (3200) Phaethon and (152679) 1998 KU2, observed very recently, Bennu is the only existing example of a primitive NEO observed in polarimetric mode over a wide interval of phase angles. Based on our polarimetric data, we propose that Bennu belongs to …
The stability and topological structure of equilibrium points in the potential field of the asteroid 101955 Bennu have been investigated with a variable density and rotation period. A dimensionless quantity is introduced for the nondimensionalization of the equations of motion, and this quantity can indicate the effect of both the rotation period and bulk density of the asteroid. Using the polyhedral model of the asteroid Bennu, the number and position of the equilibrium points are calculated and illustrated by a contour plot of the gravitational effective potential field. The topological stru…
In this work, we investigate the thermophysical properties, including thermal inertia, roughness fraction and surface grain size of OSIRIS-REx target asteroid (101955) Bennu by using a thermophysical model with the recently updated 3D radar-derived shape model (\cite[Nolan et al., 2013]{Nolan2013}) and mid-infrared observations (\cite[M$\ddot{u}$ller et al, 2012]{Muller2012}, \cite[Emery et al., 2014]{Emery2014}). We find that the asteroid bears an effective diameter of $510^{+6}_{-40}$ m, a geometric albedo of $0.047^{+0.0083}_{-0.0011}$, a roughness fraction of $0.04^{+0.26}_{-0.04}$, and th…
Exploration of asteroid (101955) Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx mission has provided an in-depth look at this rubble-pile near-Earth asteroid. In particular, the measured gravity field and the detailed shape model of Bennu indicate significant heterogeneities in its interior structure, compatible with a lower density at its center. Here we combine gravity inversion methods with a statistical rubble-pile model to determine the density and size-frequency distribution (SFD) index of the rubble that constitutes Bennu. The best-fitting models indicate that the SFD of the interior is consistent with that o…
A small number of anomalously bright boulders on the near-Earth, rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu were recently identified as eucritic material originating from asteroid (4) Vesta. Building on this discovery, we explored the global presence of exogenic boulders on Bennu. Our analysis focused on boulders larger than 1 m that show the characteristic 1-micron pyroxene absorption band in the four-color MapCam data from the OSIRIS-REx mission. We confirm the presence of exogenic boulders similar to eucrites and find that mixtures of eucrites with carbonaceous material is also a possible composit…
The Design Reference Asteroid (DRA) is a compilation of all that is known about the OSIRIS-REx mission target, asteroid (101955) Bennu. It contains our best knowledge of the properties of Bennu based on an extensive observational campaign that began shortly after its discovery, and has been used to inform mission plan development and flight system design. The DRA will also be compared with post-encounter science results to determine the accuracy of our Earth-based characterization efforts. The extensive observations of Bennu in 1999 has made it one of the best-characterized near-Earth asteroid…
In May of 2011, NASA selected the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid sample return mission as the third mission in the New Frontiers program. The other two New Frontiers missions are New Horizons, which explored Pluto during a flyby in July 2015 and is on its way for a flyby of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019, and Juno, an orbiting mission that is studying the origin, evolution, and internal structure of Jupiter. The spacecraft departed for near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu aboard an United Launch Allian…
The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample-return mission is investigating primitive near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Thousands of images will be acquired by the MapCam instrument onboard the spacecraft, an imager with four color filters based on the Eight-Color Asteroid Survey (ECAS): $b$' (473 nm), $v$ (550 nm), $w$ (698 nm), and $x$ (847 nm). This set of filters will allow identification and characterization of the absorption band centered at 700 nm and associated with hydrated silicates. In this work, we present and validate a spectral clustering methodology for application to the upcoming MapCam i…
The target asteroid of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, (101955) Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ$_{36}$), is a half-kilometer near-Earth asteroid with an extraordinarily well constrained orbit. An extensive data set of optical astrometry from 1999--2013 and high-quality radar delay measurements to Bennu in 1999, 2005, and 2011 reveal the action of the Yarkovsky effect, with a mean semimajor axis drift rate $da/dt = (-19.0 \pm 0.1)\times 10^{-4}$ au/Myr or $284\pm 1.5\;\rm{m/yr}$. The accuracy of this result depends critically on the fidelity of the observational and dynamical model. As a…
We consider an impact on an asteroid that is energetic enough to cause resurfacing by seismic reverberation and just below the catastrophic disruption threshold, assuming that seismic waves are not rapidly attenuated. In asteroids with diameter less than 1 km we identify a regime where rare energetic impactors can excite seismic waves with frequencies near those of the asteroid's slowest normal modes. In this regime, the distribution of seismic reverberation is not evenly distributed across the body surface. With mass-spring model elastic simulations, we model impact excitation of seismic wave…
Using the multi-band imager MapCam onboard the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, we identified 77 instances of proposed exogenic materials distributed globally on the surface of the B-type asteroid (101955) Bennu. We identified materials as exogenic on the basis of an absorption near 1 um that is indicative of anhydrous silicates. The exogenic materials are spatially resolved by the telescopic camera PolyCam. All such materials are brighter than their surroundings, and they are expressed in a variety of morphologi…
NASA's OSIRIS-REx and JAXA's Hayabusa2 sample-return missions are currently on their way to encounter primitive near-Earth asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, respectively. Spectral and dynamical evidence indicates that these near-Earth asteroids originated in the inner part of the main belt. There are several primitive collisional families in this region, and both these asteroids are most likely to have originated in the Polana-Eulalia family complex. We present the expected spectral characteristics of both targets based on our studies of our primitive collisional families in the inn…
Asteroid Ryugu and asteroid Bennu, which were recently visited by spacecraft Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx, respectively, are spinning top-shaped rubble piles. Other axisymmetric top-shaped near-Earth asteroids have been observed with ground-based radar, most of which rotate near breakup rotation periods of ~ 3 hours. This suggests that rotation-induced deformation of asteroids through rotational spinup produces top shapes. Although some previous simulations using the Discrete Element Method showed that spinup of rubble piles may produce oblate top shapes, it is still unclear what kinds of conditio…
Proximity observations by OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 provided clues on the shape evolution processes of the target asteroids, (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu. Their oblate shapes with equatorial ridges, or the so-called top shapes, may have evolved due to their rotational conditions at present and in the past. Different shape evolution scenarios were previously proposed; Bennu's top shape may have been driven by surface processing, while Ryugu's may have been developed due to large deformation. These two scenarios seem to be inconsistent. Here, we revisit the structural analyses in earlier wor…
Asteroids and other small bodies in the solar system tend to have irregular shapes, owing to their low gravity. This irregularity does not only apply to the topology, but also to the underlying geology, potentially containing regions of different densities and materials. The topology can be derived from optical observations, while the mass density distribution of an object is only observable, to some extent, in its gravitational field. In a companion paper, we presented geodesyNets, a neural network approach to infer the mass density distribution of an object from measurements of its gravitati…
The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) is a point spectrometer covering the spectral range of 0.4 to 4.3 microns (25,000-2300 cm-1). Its primary purpose is to map the surface composition of the asteroid Bennu, the target asteroid of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. The information it returns will help guide the selection of the sample site. It will also provide global context for the sample and high spatial resolution spectra that can be related to spatially unresolved terrestrial observations of asteroids. It is a compact, low-mass (17.8 kg), power efficient (8…
The Polana-Eulalia Complex with JWST NIRSpec: Connections to Bennu, Ryugu, and Outer Solar System Bodies
Northern Arizona University（北亚利桑那大学）；Space Science Institute（太空科学研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利天体物理学研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学）；Observatório Nacional（国家天文台）；University of Central Florida（中佛罗里达大学）；Space Telescope Science Institute（空间望远镜科学研究所）；IPAC, Caltech（加州理工学院红外处理与分析中心）；Instituto de Ciencias y Tecnologías Espaciales de Asturias (ICTEA)（阿斯图里亚斯空间科学与技术研究所）；Universidad de Oviedo（奥维耶多大学）
The REgolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) instrument on board NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu is a Class-D student collaboration experiment designed to detect fluoresced X-rays from the asteroid's surface to measure elemental abundances. In July and November 2019 REXIS collected ~615 hours of integrated exposure time of Bennu's sun-illuminated surface from terminator orbits. As reported in Hoak et al. (2021), the REXIS data do not contain a clear signal of X-ray fluorescence from the asteroid, in part due to the low incident solar X-ray flux during periods of observation.…
The OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program and is the first U.S. mission to return samples from an asteroid to Earth. The most important decision ahead of the OSIRIS-REx team is the selection of a prime sample-site on the surface of asteroid (101955) Bennu. Mission success hinges on identifying a site that is safe and has regolith that can readily be ingested by the spacecraft's sampling mechanism. To inform this mission-critical decision, the surface of Bennu is mapped using the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite and the images are used to develop …
Physical Analysis of Bennu Samples Reveals Regolith Production by Collisional Disruption on Near-Earth Asteroids
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室）；Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学月球与行星实验室）；Vatican Observatory（梵蒂冈天文台）；Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学霍普金斯极端材料研究所）；Jacobs-JETS, NASA Johnson Space Center（NASA约翰逊航天中心雅各布斯-JETS）；University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学）；EAPS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院地球、大气与行星科学系）；Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学）；National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution（史密森尼学会国家航空和航天博物馆）；Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES), NASA Johnson Space Center（NASA约翰逊航天中心天体物质研究与探索科学部）；Planetary Science Institute（行星科学研究所）；INAF, Astronomical Observatory of Padova（意大利国家天体物理研究所帕多瓦天文台）；University of Rochester（罗切斯特大学）；Southwest Research Institute（西南研究院）；Department of Geology, Rowan University（罗恩大学地质系）；Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, American Museum of Natural History（美国自然历史博物馆地球与行星科学系）
It has been shown that temperature cycles on airless bodies of our Solar System can cause damaging of surface materials. Nevertheless, propagation mechanisms in the case of space objects are still poorly understood. Present work combines a thermoelasticity model together with linear elastic fracture mechanics theory to predict fracture propagation in the presence of thermal gradients generated by diurnal temperature cycling and under conditions similar to those existing on the asteroid Bennu. The crack direction is computed using the maximal strain energy release rate criterion, which is imple…
In this work, we study the dynamics of particles around Bennu. The goal is to understand the stability, evolution, and final outcome of the simulated particles around the asteroid. According to the results, the particle sizes can be divided into two main groups depending on their behavior. Particles smaller than a centimeter are quickly removed from the system by solar radiation pressure, while the dynamics of particles larger than a few centimeters is dominated by the gravitational field of Bennu. Because of its shape and spin period, Bennu has eight equilibrium points around it. The structur…
We are interested in the periodic motion and bifurcations near the surface of an asteroid. The gravity field of an irregular asteroid and the equation of motion of a particle near the surface of an asteroid are studied. The periodic motions around the major body of triple asteroid 216 Kleopatra and the OSIRIS REx mission target asteroid 101955 Bennu are discussed. We find that motion near the surface of an irregular asteroid is quite different from the motion near the surface of a homoplastically spheroidal celestial body. The periodic motions around the asteroid 101955 Bennu and 216 Kleopatra…
The goal of the OSIRIS-REx mission is to return a sample of asteroid material from Near-Earth Asteroid (101955) Bennu. The role of the navigation and flight dynamics team is critical for the spacecraft to execute a precisely planned sampling maneuver over a specifically-selected landing site. In particular, the orientation of Bennu needs to be recovered with good accuracy during orbital operations to contribute as small an error as possible to the landing error budget. Although Bennu is well characterized from Earth-based radar observations, its orientation dynamics are not sufficiently known …
We observed the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu from the ground in 1999 and 2005, and with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2012, to constrain its rotation rate. The data reveal an acceleration of $2.64 \pm 1.05 \times 10^{-6} \mathrm{deg\ day}^{-2}$, which could be due to a change in the moment of inertia of Bennu or to spin up from the YORP effect or other source of angular momentum. The best solution is within 1 sigma of the period determined by Nolan et al. (2013). The OSIRIS-REx mission will determine the rotation state independently in 2019. Those measurements should show whether the cha…
Phase reddening is an effect that produces an increase of the spectral slope and variations in the strength of the absorption bands as the phase angle increases. In order to understand its effect on spectroscopic observations of asteroids, we have analyzed the visible and near-infrared spectra (0.45-2.5 μm) of 12 near-Earth asteroids observed at different phase angles. All these asteroids are classified as either S-complex or Q-type asteroids. In addition, we have acquired laboratory spectra of three different types of ordinary chondrites at phase angles ranging from 13\degree to 120\degree. W…
We present the results of the first-ever visible spectroscopic survey fully dedicated to the small (absolute magnitude H>20) near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population. Observations have been performed at the New Technology Telescope (NTT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), during a 30-night Guaranteed Time Observations programme, in the framework of the European Commission financed NEOShield-2 project. The visible spectra of 147 objects have been obtained and taxonomically classified. They show a peculiar taxonomic distribution, with respect to larger NEAs. In particular, olivine-rich A-ty…
Aims. The aim of our study is to obtain the near-ultraviolet to visible (NUV-VIS, 0.35 - 0.95 micron) reflectance spectra of primitive asteroids with a focus on members of the Themis and Polana-Eulalia complex families. This characterization allows us to discuss the origin of two recent sample return mission target asteroids, (162173) Ryugu and (101955) Bennu. Methods. We obtain low-resolution visible spectra of target asteroids down to 0.35 micron using the telescopes located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory and revisit spectroscopic data that have already been published. We study th…
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft encountered the asteroid (101955) Bennu on December 3, 2018, and has since acquired extensive data from the payload of scientific instruments on board. In 2019, the OSIRIS-REx team selected primary and backup sample collection sites, called Nightingale and Osprey, respectively. On October 20, 2020, OSIRIS-REx successfully collected material from Nightingale. In this work, we apply an unsupervised machine learning classification through the K-Means algorithm to spectrophotometrically characterize the surface of Bennu, and in particular Nightingale and Osprey. We first …
Space weathering is the generic term used for processes that modify the optical properties of surfaces of atmosphereless rocky bodies under exposure to the space environment. The general agreement about the relevance of the effects of space weathering on the spectral properties of S-complex asteroids fails when some basic quantitative estimates are attempted. In particular, there is severe disagreement regarding the typical timescales for significant spectral reddening to occur, ranging from 1 Myr to 1 Gyr. Generally speaking, the spectral reddening of an individual object can be considered as…
The investigation of asteroids near the Sun is important for understanding the final evolutionary stage of primitive solar system objects. A near-Sun asteroid, (155140) 2005 UD, has orbital elements similar to those of (3200) Phaethon (the target asteroid for the JAXA's $DESTINY^+$ mission). We conducted photometric and polarimetric observations of 2005 UD and found that this asteroid exhibits a polarization phase curve similar to that of Phaethon over a wide range of observed solar phase angles ($ α= 20 - 105^\circ $) but different from those of (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu (asteroids co…
The dark asteroid (101955) Bennu studied by NASA\textquoteright s OSIRIS-REx mission has a boulder-rich and apparently dust-poor surface, providing a natural laboratory to investigate the role of single-scattering processes in rough particulate media. Our goal is to define optical roughness and other scattering parameters that may be useful for the laboratory preparation of sample analogs, interpretation of imaging data, and analysis of the sample that will be returned to Earth. We rely on a semi-numerical statistical model aided by digital terrain model (DTM) shadow ray-tracing to obtain scat…
Aims. We aim to assess the suitability in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) region of the solar analogues selected by the team responsible for the asteroid reflectance included in Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) and to suggest a correction (in the form of multiplicative factors) to be applied to the Gaia DR3 asteroid reflectance spectra to account for the differences with respect to the solar analogue Hyades 64. Results. We find that the solar analogues selected for Gaia DR3 to compute the reflectance spectra of the asteroids of this data release have a systematically redder spectral slope at wavelengths s…
Spectroscopic observations from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared have revealed new and diagnostic differences among primitive asteroids. We review the spectral characteristics of these asteroids and their inferred compositional and physical properties. Primitive asteroids throughout the belt show carbon-rich compounds, varying degrees of aqueous alteration and even surface ice; recent observations provide significant new constraints on composition, thermal inertia, and other surface properties. New mid-infrared connections between primitive asteroids and interplanetary dust particles indica…
Two primitive near Earth asteroids, (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, will be visited by a spacecraft with the aim of returning samples back to Earth. Since these objects are believed to originate in the inner main belt primitive collisional families (Erigone, Polana, Clarissa, and Sulamitis) or in the background of asteroids outside these families, the characterization of these primitive populations will enhance the scientific return of the missions. The main goal of this work is to shed light on the composition of the Erigone collisional family by means of visible spectroscopy. Asteroid (16…
In an effort to better understand the role dark material plays in the reflectance spectrum of carbonaceous asteroids, we performed laboratory studies focusing on quantifying how the addition of relevant dark material (graphite, magnetite and troilite) can alter the ultraviolet-visible and near-infrared spectrum of a neutral silicate mineral. We find that addition of graphite, magnetite and troilite all darken the reflectance spectrum of our forsterite samples and cause the spectral slope to decrease (become blue). These spectral changes can be caused by both nm- and micron-sized grains. In the…
The thermal inertia of an asteroid's surface can provide insight into regolith properties, such as the presence of a layer of fine dust, the density and thermal conductivity of a rocky surface, and, together with other observational data, mineralogy. Knowledge of the surface characteristics of asteroids is important for planetary defense initiatives and the extraction of resources ("asteroid mining"). A simple means of estimating asteroid thermal inertia has been proposed by Harris & Drube, which is suitable for application to large sets of thermal-infrared observational data, such as those ob…
We report Arecibo S-band (2380 MHz; 12.6 cm) radar observations of near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon during the December 2017 apparition when Phaethon passed within 0.07 au of Earth. Radar images with a resolution of 75 m per pixel reveal a roughly spheroidal shape more than 6 km in diameter at the equator with several discernible surface features hundreds of meters in extent. These include a possible crater more than 1 km across located below 30$^{\circ}$ latitude and a roughly 600-m radar-dark region near one of the poles. Overall, the radar images of Phaethon are reminiscent of those of (…
The surfaces of airless bodies such as asteroids are exposed to many phenomena that can alter their physical properties. Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission, has demonstrated how complex the surface of a small body can be. In 2019 November, the potentially hazardous asteroid 2015 JD1 experienced a close approach of 0.0331 au from the Earth. We present results of the physical characterization of 2015 JD1 based on ground-based radar, spectroscopy, and photometric observations acquired during 2019 November. Radar polarimetry measurements from the Arecibo Observatory indicate a morphologic…
Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata, CCT La Plata-CONICET-UNLP（拉普拉塔天体物理研究所）；Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata（拉普拉塔国立大学天文与地球物理学院）；Grupo de Ciencias Planetarias, Dpto. de Geofísica y Astronomía, FCEFyN, UNSJ - CONICET（圣胡安国立大学行星科学组）
Near-Earth binary asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3 is the current backup target of the ESA MarcoPolo-R mission, selected for the study phase of ESA M3 missions. It is a primitive (C-type) asteroid that shows significant variation in its visible and near-infrared spectra. Here we present new spectra of 1996 FG3 and we compare our new data with other published spectra, analysing the variation in the spectral slope. The asteroid will not be observable again over the next three years at least. We obtained the spectra using DOLORES and NICS instruments at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), a 3.6m te…
Physical Characteristics of the Asteroid (469219) Kamo'oalewa as a target of the Chinese Tianwen-2 mission
Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院云南天文台）；Key Laboratory for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院天体结构与演化重点实验室）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Department of Physics, University of Helsinki（赫尔辛基大学物理系）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University（南京大学天文与空间科学学院）
The asteroid 2014 JO25, considered to be "potentially hazardous" by the Minor Planet Center, was spectroscopically followed during its close-Earth encounter on 19th and 20th of April 2017. The spectra of the asteroid were taken with the low resolution spectrograph (LISA), mounted on the 1.2-m telescope at the Mount Abu Infrared Observatory, India. Coming from a region close to the Hungaria population of asteroids, this asteroid follows a comet-like orbit with a relatively high inclination and large eccentricity. Hence, we carried out optical spectroscopic observations of the asteroid to look f…
We identify spectral similarities between asteroids and meteorites. We identify spectral matches between 500 asteroid spectra and over 1,000 samples of RELAB meteorite spectra over 0.45-2.5 microns. We reproduce many major and previously known meteorite-asteroid connections and find possible new, more rare or less-established connections. Well-established connections include: ordinary chondrites (OC) with S-complex asteroids; pristine CM carbonaceous chondrites with Ch-type asteroids and heated CMs with C-type asteroids; HED meteorites with V-types; enstatite chondrites with Xc-type asteroids;…
The majority of basaltic asteroids are found in the inner main belt, although a few have also been observed in the outer main belt and near-Earth space. These asteroids -referred to as V-types- have surface compositions that resemble that of the 530km sized asteroid Vesta. Besides the compositional similarity, dynamical evidence also links many V-type asteroids to Vesta. Moreover, Vesta is one of the few asteroids to have been identified as source of specific classes of meteorites, the howardite, eucrite, diogenite achondrites (HEDs). Despite the general consensus on the outlined scenario, sev…
In this paper, we investigate thermophysical characteristics of near-Earth asteroid (341843) 2008 EV5, based on our improved Advanced Thermal Physical Model (ATPM) by considering the contribution of sunlight-reflection for rough surface, along with four wavebands observations from Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the radar-derived shape model. Here we derive that 2008 EV5 has a relatively low thermal inertia of $Γ=110 _{-12}^{+40}\rm~J m^{-2} s^{-1/2} K^{-1}$ but a high roughness fraction. The geometric albedo and effective diameter are then constrained to be $p_v=0.095_{-0.003}^…
We report near-infrared (0.7-2.5 micron) reflectance spectra for each of the six target asteroids of the forthcoming NASA Discovery-class mission Lucy. Five Jupiter Trojans (the binary (617) Patroclus system, (3548) Eurybates, (21900) Orus, (11351) Leucus, and (15094) Polymele) are well-characterized, with measurable spectral differences. We also report a survey-quality spectrum for main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson. We measured a continuum of spectral slopes including "red" (Orus, Leucus), "less red" (Eurybates, Patroclus-Menoetius) and intermediate (Polymele), indicating a range of c…
