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As a continuation of the work by Granvik et al. (2012), we expand the statistical treatment of Earth’s temporarily-captured natural satellites from temporarily-captured orbiters (TCOs, i.e., objects which make at least one orbit around the Earth) to the newly redefined subpopulation of temporarily-captured flybys (TCFs). TCFs are objects that while being gravitationally bound fail to make a complete...
We determine the absolute magnitude (H) distribution (or size-frequency distribution, SFD; N(H)∝10αH where α is the slope of the distribution) for near-Earth objects (NEO) with 13 < H < 30 and Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM) targets with 27 < H < 31 that were detected by the 1st telescope of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1; e.g. Kaiser et al., 2002;...
We present a fast method to calculate an asteroid survey’s ‘bias’ – essentially a correction factor from the observed number of objects to the actual number in the population. The method builds upon the work of Jedicke and Metcalfe (Jedicke, R., Metcalfe, T.S. [1998]. Icaurs 131, 245–260) and Granvik et al. (Granvik, M., Vaubaillon, J., Jedicke, R. [2012]. Icarus 218, 262–277) and essentially efficiently...
We present the results of a Monte Carlo technique to calculate the absolute magnitudes (H) and slope parameters (G) of ∼240,000 asteroids observed by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope during the first 15months of its 3-year all-sky survey mission. The system’s exquisite photometry with photometric errors ≲0.04mag, and well-defined filter and photometric system, allowed us to derive accurate H and G even with...
We analyze a set of 760475 observations of 333026 unique main-belt objects obtained by the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) survey telescope between 2012 May 20 and 2013 November 9, a period during which PS1 discovered two main-belt comets, P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS) and P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PANSTARRS). PS1 comet detection procedures currently consist of the comparison of the point spread functions (PSFs) of moving objects...
We have calculated 90% confidence limits on the steady-state rate of catastrophic disruptions of main belt asteroids in terms of the absolute magnitude at which one catastrophic disruption occurs per year H0CL as a function of the post-disruption increase in brightness (Δm) and subsequent brightness decay rate (τ). The confidence limits were calculated using the brightest unknown main belt asteroid...
We present a study on the discoverability of temporarily captured orbiters (TCOs) by present day or near-term anticipated ground-based and space-based facilities. TCOs (Granvik, M., Vaubaillon, J., Jedicke, R. [2012]. Icarus 218, 262–277) are potential targets for spacecraft rendezvous or human exploration (Chyba, M., Patterson, G., Picot, G., Granvik, M., Jedicke, R., Vaubaillon, J. [2014]. J. Indust...
We have calculated the coherence and detectable lifetimes of synthetic near-Earth object (NEO) families created by catastrophic disruption of a progenitor as it suffers a very close Earth approach. The closest or slowest approaches yield the most violent ‘s-class’ disruption events where the largest remaining fragment after disruption and reaccumulation retains less than 50% of the parent’s mass....
We report on our search for genetically related asteroids amongst the near-Earth object (NEO) population—families of NEOs akin to the well known main belt asteroid families. We used the technique proposed by Fu et al. (Fu, H., Jedicke, R., Durda, D.D., Fevig, R. Binzel, R.P. [2005]. Icarus 178(2), 434–449) supplemented with a detailed analysis of the statistical significance of the detected clusters...
The discovery of new objects in modern wide-field asteroid and comet surveys can be enhanced by first identifying observations belonging to known Solar System objects. The assignation of new observations to a known object is an attribution problem that occurs when a least squares orbit already exists for the object but a separate fit is not possible to just the set of new observations. In this work...
We have for the first time calculated the population characteristics of the Earth’s irregular natural satellites (NESs) that are temporarily captured from the near-Earth-object (NEO) population. The steady-state NES size–frequency and residence-time distributions were determined under the dynamical influence of all the massive bodies in the Solar System (but mainly the Sun, Earth, and Moon) for NEOs...
The first of a new class of objects now known as main belt comets (MBCs) or “activated asteroids” was identified in 1996. The seven known members of this class have orbital characteristics of main belt asteroids yet exhibit dust ejection like comets. In order to constrain their physical and orbital properties we searched the Thousand Asteroid Light Curve Survey (TALCS; Masiero, J.R., Jedicke, R.,...
We provide evidence of consistency between the dynamical evolution of main belt asteroids and their color evolution due to space weathering. The dynamical age of an asteroid’s surface (Bottke, W.F., Durda, D.D., Nesvorný, D., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Vokrouhlický, D., Levison, H. [2005]. Icarus 175 (1), 111–140; Nesvorný, D., Jedicke, R., Whiteley, R.J., Ivezić, Ž. [2005]. Icarus 173, 132–152)...
We have extended our earlier work on space weathering of the youngest S-complex asteroid families to include results from asteroid clusters with ages <10 6 years and to newly identified asteroid pairs with ages <5×10 5 years. We have identified three S-complex asteroid clusters amongst the set of clusters with ages in the range 10 5–6 years—(1270) Datura, (21509) Lucascavin...
We present the results of our Thousand Asteroid Light Curve Survey (TALCS) conducted with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope in September 2006. Our untargeted survey detected 828 Main Belt asteroids to a limiting magnitude of g′∼22.5 corresponding to a diameter range of 0.4km ⩽D⩽10km. Of these, 278 objects had photometry of sufficient quality to perform rotation period fits. We debiased the observations...
We have performed a simulation of a next generation sky survey’s (Pan-STARRS 1) efficiency for detecting Earth-impacting asteroids. The steady-state sky-plane distribution of the impactors long before impact is concentrated towards small solar elongations (Chesley, S.R., Spahr T.B., 2004. In: Belton, M.J.S., Morgan, T.H., Samarashinha, N.H., Yeomans, D.K. (Eds.), Mitigation of Hazardous Comets and...
For absolute magnitudes greater than the current completeness limit of H-magnitude ∼15 the main asteroid belt's size distribution is imperfectly known. We have acquired good-quality orbital and absolute H-magnitude determinations for a sample of small main-belt asteroids in order to study the orbital and size distribution beyond H=15, down to sub-kilometer sizes (H>18). Based on six observing nights...
We present the first observational measurement of the orbit and size distribution of small Solar System objects whose orbits are wholly interior to the Earth's (Inner Earth Objects, IEOs, with aphelion <0.983 AU). We show that we are able to model the detections of near-Earth objects (NEO) by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) using a detailed parameterization of the CSS survey cadence and detection...
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