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S.C. Lowry, A. Fitzsimmons (Queen's University Belfast)
The rapid increase in the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) discovery rate now allows systematic investigations of the reflectance properties of these objects to take place. One motive for this is to understand the relative importance of source regions of NEAs. A continuing area of speculation has been the importance of Jupiter-family comets as such a source. We are conducting a program of ground-based imaging of NEAs with the aim of detecting possible cometary candidates amongst the NEA population. Target selection criteria is based on the orbital parameters of the NEA, or more specifically their Tisserand parameters. Asteroids typically have Tisserand parameters Tj > 3, whereas Jupiter-family and Halley-type comets typically have Tj < 3. Our selected targets have Tj in or near the cometary range.
We will present our latest results from observations taken at the European Southern Observatory's 3.5m New Technology Telescope on March 26th and 27th, 2004. The photometry consists of visual broadband imaging with BVRIZ filters covering the 0.4-0.9 micron range, taken with the EMMI instrument, and near-simultaneous JHKs imaging to cover the 1.3-2.2 micron range, taken with the SOFI infrared camera. Asteroids that were targeted include 24445 (2000 PM8), 2003 KP2, 1998 ST4, 5836 (1993 MF), 2003 UL12, 2003 XM and 1994 AB1 (visual and infrared). NEAs with optical observations only include 2000 GO82, 1982 YA, (5370) Taranis and 2003 CJ11. Analysis is on-going, but we shall present colour indices from which the bodies taxonomic classification will be derived, along with effective sizes from the visual photometry. Results will be compared with other main-belt asteroids and NEAs for which similar visual and/or infrared data exist.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.