Presentation Abstract

Title The Accuracy of the Warm Spitzer Near-Earth Object Survey
Author Block Alan W. Harris1, M. Mommert1, J. L. Hora2, M. Mueller3, D. E. Trilling4, B. Bhattacharya5, W. F. Bottke6, S. Chesley7, M. Delbo'3, J. P. Emery8, G. G. Fazio2, A. Mainzer7, B. Penprase9, H. A. Smith2, T. B. Spahr2, J. A. Stansberry10, C. A. Thomas4
1DLR Inst. Planetary Research, Germany, 2Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 3Univ. de Nice Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, Obs. de la Côte d’Azur, France, 4Northern Arizona University, 5NASA Herschel Science Center, Caltech, 6Southwest Research Institute, 7Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 8University of Tennessee, 9Pomona College, 10Steward Observatory, University of Arizona.
Special Instructions Strongly prefer oral
Abstract We report on observations of near-Earth objects (NEOs) performed with IRAC as part of our on-going (2009-2011) Warm Spitzer NEO survey (“ExploreNEOs”), the primary aim of which is to provide sizes and albedos of some 700 NEOs. The emphasis of the work described here is an assessment of the overall accuracy of our survey results, which are based on a semi-empirical generalized model of asteroid thermal emission. The set of some 170 NEOs in our current Warm Spitzer results catalog contains 28 for which published taxonomic classifications are available, and 14 for which relatively reliable published diameters and albedos are available. From a comparison of the Warm Spitzer results with results expected on the basis of previous observations, we conclude that Warm Spitzer diameters and albedos are accurate to about 25% and 50%, respectively. Cases in which agreement with results from the literature is worse than expected are highlighted and discussed; these include the potential spacecraft target 138911 2001 AE2. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA.


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42nd DPS Program published in BAAS volume 42 #4, 2010.