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M. Lazzarin, S. Fornasier, C. Barbieri (Astronomy Dept., Padova University), M. Di Martino (Torino Astronomical Observatory)
The International Rosetta mission, the third ESA Cornerstone, on its way to the comet P/Wirtanen will encounter two asteroids. The first fly-byed asteroid will be 4979 Otawara, on 11 July 2006. The Deep Space 1 mission, one of the two missions of NASA's New Millenium Program, launched on October 24, 1998, will fly-by the Near Earth asteroid 9969 (1992 KD) on July 29, 1999. We have performed a spectroscopic investigation of the two targets in the visible region. Both asteroids have been observed in March, 1999 with the 1.5 m telescope of ESO, La Silla. The spectra have been obtained in the spectral range 5000-10000 Å. The analysis of the data is still in progress: preliminary results seem to indicate that both asteroids belong to the S taxonomic class. The results of the observations will be reported.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: lazzarin@pd.astro.it