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[16.03] The 1 - 13 µm Spectra of Deimos and Phobos

D.K. Lynch, R.W. Russell, R.J. Rudy, S. Mazuk, C.C. Venturini (The Aerospace Corp.), H. B. Hammel (Space Science Institute), R.B. Perry (NASA LaRC), M.V. Sykes (Univ. Arizona), R.C. Puetter (UCSD)

We report 3 -13 µm spectroscopy of the moons of Mars. Observations were made using the Broadband Array Spectrograph System (BASS) with a 3.4-arcsec diameter beam on the NASA IRTF on Aug 21.6 2003 UT. The spectra for both objects showed significant departures from a single-temperature gray body function. The 5 -12 µm color temperatures of Deimos and Phobos were 310 +/- 5 K and 345 K +/- 5 K respectively, significantly higher than the black body thermal equilibrium temperature (237 K) at Mars’ heliocentric distance. Relative to the color temperature fits, Deimos exhibited significant excess emission between 8 and 10.5 microns and Phobos showed only marginal excess emission. These findings are based on a flux model for the calibrator of alpha Tau that includes the SiO absorption between 7.9 and 10 µm. The M and [N = 10.2 µm] magnitudes for Deimos were 5.3 +/- 0.3 and 0.76 +/- 0.05 respectively. The L, M and [N = 10.2 µm] magnitudes for Phobos were 6.3, 4.2 and 0.05 respectively, all +/- 0.07.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.