The radiometric method has proven highly effective in determining the sizes and albedo of asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs). This technique involves measuring the heat flux from these objects in the thermal infrared using telescopes, and modeling these observations as a function of size and other physical parameters. The values of these parameters are constrained by achieving the best...
The Near Earth Object Surveyor mission will survey the sky at infrared wavelengths in order to detect and discover ~100,000 NEOs, with sizes down to 25 m. The mission survey cadence is designed to provide sufficient self-followup to constrain the orbits and sizes of all detected NEOs. However, additional characterization of physical properties such as albedo and spectral taxonomy will...
Most current and planned NEO surveys are ground-based and carried out in the visible wavelength range. However, this approach has some limitations, such as (1) weather dependency, (2) that only a portion of the night sky is visible from any given location on Earth, (3) NEOs are difficult to detect at low galactic latitudes and (4) that visible-light surveys can only determine the motion and...
The thermal emission from an asteroid is a consequence of its surface temperatures, and the object’s size can be directly estimated from observations in the infrared. Accurately estimating the surface temperature distribution, which depends on several factors, can improve the precision of these size measurements. Key factors include the asteroid’s shape, spin, and thermophysical properties...
Rapidly estimating recently discovered hazardous asteroids' physical properties, such as rotation rate, surface composition, size, and albedo, provides a suitable practice for improving planetary defense techniques by acquiring these measurements hours or days after their discoveries. In this talk, we will present simultaneous optical and mid-infrared observations of recently discovered...
The Institute of Astronomy, School of Science, University of Tokyo, is promoting the TAO (The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory) project to construct a 6.5-m telescope at an altitude of 5,640 m in Atacama, Chile. This will be the highest astronomical observatory on Earth, providing exceptionally clear skies for infrared observations at wavelengths up to 38 μm. Scientific observations are...
