The D-CIXS X-ray mapping spectrometer on SMART-1     

M Grande  R BrowningN Waltham  D ParkerS.K Dunkin  B KentB Kellett  C.H PerryB Swinyard  A PerryJ Feraday  C HoweG McBride  K PhillipsJ Huovelin  P MuhliP.J Hakala  O VilhuJ Laukkanen  N ThomasD Hughes  H AlleyneM Grady  R LundinS Barabash  D BakerP.E Clark  C.D MurrayJ Guest  I CasanovaL.C d'Uston  S MauriceB Foing  D.J Heather  V FernandesK Muinonen  S.S RussellA Christou  C OwenP Charles  H KoskinenM Kato  K SipilaS Nenonen  M HolmstromN Bhandari  R ElphicD Lawrence 《Planetary and Space Science》2003,51(6):427-433

The D-CIXS Compact X-ray Spectrometer will provide high quality spectroscopic mapping of the Moon, the primary science target of the ESA SMART-1 mission. D-CIXS consists of a high throughput spectrometer, which will perform spatially localised X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. It will also carry a solar monitor, to provide the direct calibration needed to produce a global map of absolute lunar elemental abundances, the first time this has been done. Thus it will achieve ground breaking science within a resource envelope far smaller than previously thought possible for this type of instrument, by exploiting two new technologies, swept charge devices and micro-structure collimators. The new technology does not require cold running, with its associated overheads to the spacecraft. At the same time it will demonstrate a radically novel approach to building a type of instrument essential for the BepiColombo mission and potential future planetary science targets.  相似文献   

A Critical review of theoretical models of negatively polarized light scattered by atmosphereless solar system bodies     

Yu. G. Shkuratov  K. Muinonen  E. Bowell  K. Lumme  J. I. Peltoniemi  M. A. Kreslavsky  D. G. Stankevich  V. P. Tishkovetz  N. V. Opanasenko  L. Y. Melkumova 《Earth, Moon, and Planets》1994,65(3):201-246

About a dozen physical mechanisms and models aspire to explain the negative polarization of light scattered by atmosphereless celestial bodies. This is too large a number for the reliable interpretation of observational data. Through a comparative analysis of the models, our main goal is to answer the question: Does any one model have an advantage over the others? Our analysis is based on new laboratory polarimetric and photometric data as well as on theoretical results. We show that the widely used models due to Hopfield and Wolff cannot realistically explain the phase-angle dependence of the degree of polarization observed at small phase angles. The so-called interference or coherent backscattering mechanism is the most promising model. Models based on that mechanism use well-defined physical parameters to explain both negative polarization and the opposition effect. They are supported by laboratory experiments, particularly those showing enhancement of negative polarization with decreasing particle size down to the wavelength of light. According to the interference mechanism, pronounced negative branches of polarization, like those of C-class asteroids, may indicate a high degree of optical inhomogeneity of light-scattering surfaces at small scales. The mechanism also seems appropriate for treating the negative polarization and opposition effects of cometary dust comae, planetary rings, and the zodiacal light.  相似文献   

Asteroid orbital ranging using Markov‐Chain Monte Carlo     

Dagmara Oszkiewicz  Karri Muinonen  Jenni Virtanen  Mikael Granvik 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2009,44(12):1897-1904

Abstract— We present a novel Markov‐Chain Monte‐Carlo orbital ranging method (MCMC) for poorly observed single‐apparition asteroids with two or more observations. We examine the Bayesian a posteriori probability density of the orbital elements using methods that map a volume of orbits in the orbital‐element phase space. In particular, we use the MCMC method to sample the phase space in an unbiased way. We study the speed of convergence and also the efficiency of the new method for the initial orbit computation problem. We present the results of the MCMC ranging method applied to three objects from different dynamical groups. We conclude that the method is applicable to initial orbit computation for near‐Earth, main‐belt, and transneptunian objects.  相似文献   

Polarimetry of Centaurs (2060) Chiron, (5145) Pholus and (10199) Chariklo     

I.N. Belskaya  S. Bagnulo  K. Muinonen  G.P. Tozzi  L. Kolokolova 《Icarus》2010,210(1):472-479

Results of the first polarimetric observations of Centaurs (5145) Pholus and (10199) Chariklo, and new observations of (2060) Chiron are presented together with the estimates of their absolute magnitudes. Observations were carried out at the 8 m ESO Very Large Telescope in 2007-2008. They revealed noticeable negative polarization in the phase-angle range 0.5-4.4° with a minimum varying from −1% to −2.1% in the R band. All three objects show diverse polarization phase-angle behaviour, each distinctly different from that of transneptunian objects. We found evidence of surface heterogeneity for Chariklo while Chiron and Pholus appear to have rather homogeneous surfaces. Polarization phase behaviours of Chiron and Pholus are significantly different from any other Solar System bodies studied so far. A shift of negative polarization minima toward small phase angles seems to be a characteristic feature of polarization properties of Centaurs. Presence of a small amount of water frost on a dark surface is considered as one of the possible ways to explain these properties.  相似文献   

Linking large-parallax Spitzer–CFHT–VLT astrometry of asteroids     

Mikael Granvik  Karri Muinonen  Lynne Jones  Bidushi Bhattacharya  Marco Delbo  Laura Saba  Alberto Cellino  Edward Tedesco  Don Davis  Victoria Meadows 《Icarus》2007,192(2):475-490

We show that the new ephemeris-space multiple-address-comparison (eMAC) method solves asteroid linking problems despite large parallaxes by applying the method to astrometric asteroid observation sets obtained nearly simultaneously with the Spitzer space telescope, the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), and European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT). For main-belt asteroids, the parallax between Spitzer and the Earth-based telescopes is approximately one degree which is large as compared to a typical parallax for solely Earth-based telescopes in the arcseconds regime. In the eMAC method, we reduce the initially huge amount of possible linkages between observation sets by comparing samples of ephemerides that have been computed separately for all sets at, say, three common dates. If the non-zero ephemeris probability densities overlap at all common dates, we try to find an orbit solution for these so-called trial linkages. If there exists an orbit which reproduces all the astrometric observations assuming predefined observational errors, we call it a linkage. Known asteroids are independently identified among Spitzer, CFHT, and VLT astrometry, and comparing the identified observations to the linkages found shows that the method found all known correct linkages present in the data. In addition, we also found five previously unpublished linkages between Spitzer astrometry and Earth-based astrometry. Based on our simulations, we found virtually all Spitzer-related linkages between two single-night observation sets, and more than 99.4% of linkages between two single-night observation sets obtained by Earth-based observatories. Virtually all correct linkages consisting of at least three single-night sets were also detected. The results show that large-parallax discovery observations made from a spacecraft can be linked to Earth-based follow-up observations to ensure that the objects are not lost. Furthermore, we compute the heliocentric and Spitzer-centric distances as well as the corresponding solar phase angles at the dates of Spitzer observations. Based on comparisons to simulated geocentric observations, we also show that, for typical nearly-simultaneous observations, the parallax reduces the distance uncertainties by several orders of magnitude.  相似文献   

Inferring asteroid surface properties from radar albedos and circular‐polarization ratios     

A. Virkki  K. Muinonen  A. Penttilä 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2014,49(1):86-94

We model electromagnetic scattering from varying closely packed random aggregates of spheres imitating piles of rocks on the surface of an asteroid. We utilize the Multiple Sphere T‐Matrix Method software to study how different parameters affect the radar albedo and the circular‐polarization ratio, for example, the size distribution and electric permittivities of the spherical particles forming the aggregates, and to see if the computed radar albedos and circular‐polarization ratios can be linked to the observational data of asteroids detected using radar. The results of the simulations show the radar albedo and the circular‐polarization ratio as a function of size parameter for different silicate minerals, including anorthosite, peridotite olivine, and basalt. A direct vacuum‐rock surface interface will be considered as well as an approximation for a case in which the rocks are covered by a layer of powdered material, that is, fine regolith. The promising results show values on the range of observed values and imply that the highest circular‐polarization values (μ_c > 1) are measurable only for targets with surface material of high electric permittivity (ε′ > 4.0). However, the asteroid surface model requires further development before more robust conclusions can be made of the surface chemical and structural composition.  相似文献   

Time evolution of orbital uncertainties for the impactor candidate 2004 AS₁     

Jenni Virtanen  Karri Muinonen 《Icarus》2006,184(2):289-301

We evaluate the asteroid impact risk from the discovery night onwards using six-dimensional statistical orbit computation techniques to examine the a posteriori probability density of the orbital elements. Close to the discovery moment the observational data of an object are typically exiguous: the number of observations is very small and/or the covered orbital arc is very short. For such data, the covariance matrices computed in the linear approximation (e.g., with the least-squares technique) are known to fail to describe the uncertainties in the orbital parameters. The technique of statistical ranging gives us rigorous means to assess the orbital uncertainties already on the discovery night. To examine the time evolution of orbital uncertainties, we make use of a new nonlinear Monte Carlo technique of phase-space sampling using volumes of variation, which complements the ranging technique for exiguous data and the least-squares technique for extensive observational data. We apply the statistical techniques to the near-Earth Asteroid 2004 AS₁, which grabbed the attention of asteroid scientists because, for one day, it posed the highest and most immediate impact risk so far recorded. We take this extreme case to illustrate the ambiguities in the impact risk assessment for short arcs. We confirm that the weighted fraction of the collision orbits at discovery was large but conclude that this was mostly due to the discordance of the discovery-night observations. This case study highlights the need to introduce a regularization in terms of an a priori probability density to secure the invariance of the probabilistic analysis especially in the nonlinear orbital inversion for short arcs. We remark that a predominant role of the a priori can give indications of the feasibility of the probabilistic interpretation, that is, how reliable the results derived from the a posteriori probability density are. Nevertheless, the strict mathematical definition of, e.g., the collision probability remains valid, and our nonlinear statistical techniques give us the means to always deduce, at the very least, order-of-magnitude-estimates for the collision probability.  相似文献   

Asteroid taxonomic signatures from photometric phase curves     

Dagmara Anna Oszkiewicz  Edward Bowell  L.H. Wasserman  Karri Muinonen  Antti Penttilä  Tuomo Pieniluoma  David E. Trilling  Cristina A. Thomas 《Icarus》2012,219(1):283-296

We explore the correlation between an asteroid’s taxonomy and photometric phase curve using the H, G₁₂ photometric phase function, with the shape of the phase function described by the single parameter G₁₂. We explore the usability of G₁₂ in taxonomic classification for individual objects, asteroid families, and dynamical groups. We conclude that the mean values of G₁₂ for the considered taxonomic complexes are statistically different, and also discuss the overall shape of the G₁₂ distribution for each taxonomic complex. Based on the values of G₁₂ for about half a million asteroids, we compute the probabilities of C, S, and X complex membership for each asteroid. For an individual asteroid, these probabilities are rather evenly distributed over all of the complexes, thus preventing meaningful classification. We then present and discuss the G₁₂ distributions for asteroid families, and predict the taxonomic complex preponderance for asteroid families given the distribution of G₁₂ in each family. For certain asteroid families, the probabilistic prediction of taxonomic complex preponderance can clearly be made. In particular, the C complex preponderant families are the easiest to detect, the Dora and Themis families being prime examples of such families. We continue by presenting the G₁₂-based distribution of taxonomic complexes throughout the main asteroid belt in the proper element phase space. The Nysa–Polana family shows two distinct regions in the proper element space with different G₁₂ values dominating in each region. We conclude that the G₁₂-based probabilistic distribution of taxonomic complexes through the main belt agrees with the general view of C complex asteroid proportion increasing towards the outer belt. We conclude that the G₁₂ photometric parameter cannot be used in determining taxonomic complex for individual asteroids, but it can be utilized in the statistical treatment of asteroid families and different regions of the main asteroid belt.  相似文献   

MarcoPolo-R near earth asteroid sample return mission   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Maria Antonietta Barucci  A. F. Cheng  P. Michel  L. A. M. Benner  R. P. Binzel  P. A. Bland  H. B?hnhardt  J. R. Brucato  A. Campo Bagatin  P. Cerroni  E. Dotto  A. Fitzsimmons  I. A. Franchi  S. F. Green  L.-M. Lara  J. Licandro  B. Marty  K. Muinonen  A. Nathues  J. Oberst  A. S. Rivkin  F. Robert  R. Saladino  J. M. Trigo-Rodriguez  S. Ulamec  M. Zolensky 《Experimental Astronomy》2012,33(2-3):645-684

MarcoPolo-R is a sample return mission to a primitive Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) proposed in collaboration with NASA. It will rendezvous with a primitive NEA, scientifically characterize it at multiple scales, and return a unique sample to Earth unaltered by the atmospheric entry process or terrestrial weathering. MarcoPolo-R will return bulk samples (up to 2?kg) from an organic-rich binary asteroid to Earth for laboratory analyses, allowing us to: explore the origin of planetary materials and initial stages of habitable planet formation; identify and characterize the organics and volatiles in a primitive asteroid; understand the unique geomorphology, dynamics and evolution of a binary NEA. This project is based on the previous Marco Polo mission study, which was selected for the Assessment Phase of the first round of Cosmic Vision. Its scientific rationale was highly ranked by ESA committees and it was not selected only because the estimated cost was higher than the allotted amount for an M class mission. The cost of MarcoPolo-R will be reduced to within the ESA medium mission budget by collaboration with APL (John Hopkins University) and JPL in the NASA program for coordination with ESA’s Cosmic Vision Call. The baseline target is a binary asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3, which offers a very efficient operational and technical mission profile. A binary target also provides enhanced science return. The choice of this target will allow new investigations to be performed more easily than at a single object, and also enables investigations of the fascinating geology and geophysics of asteroids that are impossible at a single object. Several launch windows have been identified in the time-span 2020–2024. A number of other possible primitive single targets of high scientific interest have been identified covering a wide range of possible launch dates. The baseline mission scenario of MarcoPolo-R to 1996 FG3 is as follows: a single primary spacecraft provided by ESA, carrying the Earth Re-entry Capsule, sample acquisition and transfer system provided by NASA, will be launched by a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Kourou into GTO and using two space segment stages. Two similar missions with two launch windows, in 2021 and 2022 and for both sample return in 2029 (with mission duration of 7 and 8?years), have been defined. Earlier or later launches, in 2020 or 2024, also offer good opportunities. All manoeuvres are carried out by a chemical propulsion system. MarcoPolo-R takes advantage of three industrial studies completed as part of the previous Marco Polo mission (see ESA/SRE (2009)3, Marco Polo Yellow Book) and of the expertise of the consortium led by Dr. A.F. Cheng (PI of the NASA NEAR Shoemaker mission) of the JHU-APL, including JPL, NASA ARC, NASA LaRC, and MIT.  相似文献   

Asteroid identification at discovery     

Mikael Granvik  Karri Muinonen 《Icarus》2005,179(1):109-127

We present a novel method for the search of linkages among astrometric observations of asteroids, that is, tentative identifications among asteroids observed. Having two different master sets of asteroid observations each containing a number of separate subsets, we define a linkage as a pair of subsets residing in separate master sets that can be tied together with an orbit for given observational errors. To find linkages among a wealth of observations we use an efficient stepwise filtering approach. First, we start with what we call phase-space address comparison. The first step substantially reduces the initially huge amount of pairs by requiring that pairs to be subjected to further analysis have similar geocentric spherical coordinates at common epochs (for example, at three epochs). Second, we search for orbits for each of the selected pairs of subsets. Succeeding in the effort proves that a linkage exists. If there are contradictions among linkages found—for example, a single subset being linked to several mutually exclusive subsets—additional new or archive observations are usually needed to discard erroneous linkages. The new method is built on six-dimensional statistical orbital inversion (Ranging), and is therefore particularly suitable for analyzing objects with the shortest observational arcs, that is, newly discovered asteroids (and comets). Results from extensive and successful tests on simulated survey observations are presented and discussed. Theoretical and empirical scaling results show that the method is applicable to future large-scale surveys that will increase the rate of asteroid discovery by at least two orders of magnitude. The successful linking of faint single-night observation sets obtained with the Very Large Telescope are briefly reviewed.  相似文献