Near-Infrared Reconnaissance of Near-Earth Objects

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AST 0205863BinzelUnraveling the fundamental relationships between asteroids, comets, and meteorites is afirst step toward important new insights into the early history of our own planetary system. Observational investigation of the near-Earth object (NEO) population provides the unique opportunity for studying all three of these classes of objects. The long-term interests of society also dictate that we achieve an understanding of the NEO population for assessing NEOs for their impact hazard and space resource potential.Dr. Richard Binzel, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will direct an observational program to measure the near infrared spectral properties for 40-60 NEOs per year, substantially increasing the quantity and quality of these types of observations of Earth's nearest neighbors. The near-infrared measurements will be made over the wavelength range 0.8-2.5Mm using the new state-of-the-art SpeX spectrograph at the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The principal goal of the project is basic reconnaissance of the near-infrared spectral characteristics of the NEO population. The observations and data set will be a balance between measurements that push to the state-of-the-art limits of the technology for the smallest and faintest objects and measurements that provide high signal-to-noise-ratio spectra sufficient for detailed mineralogical analysis. ***