E.F. Tedesco
Tedesco's 2010 research included the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) study on "Light Scattering Phenomena in Small Body Surfaces"
The objective of this program was to investigate the quality of asteroid absolute magnitudes, the asteroid magnitude phase function, and the calibration of the relation between asteroid albedos and the observable properties of the polarization of their reflected light. Although the relation between asteroid albedos and their polarization has been derived for larger asteroids, the quality of the polarization data is generally poor and little data is available on small asteroids.
To address these objectives, and related issues, the PI (together with five colleagues from Europe) conducted an interdisciplinary program with meetings supported by the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland (http://www.issibern.ch). JPL subcontract 1384946 provided support for the PIs participation in this effort during 2010.
Tedesco also spent 2010 on U.S. Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite Science Team Support, where he began work on the second year of a four-year $942,000 NASA grant.
This award supports the participation of US scientists on the Near Earth Space Surveillance (NESS) Science Team of the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) mission, funded by the Canadian Space Agency and Defense Research and Development Canada. Development of the NEOSSat micro-satellite as a dual use mission has begun (the PDR was 21 - 22 April 2008) with launch currently anticipated for June 2011.
The NEOSSat mission represents the first comprehensive, synoptic, space-based, visual imagery survey over a large region of the sky and will concentrate on regions of the sky not well-suited to observing from the ground. In particular, it will more efficiently search near-Sun regions (to within 45-deg of the Sun) than ground-based systems. NEOSSat is a dual use mission and will also track high altitude satellites and space debris.
NEOSSat is capable of observing over half the asteroids in Aten-class orbits with diameters greater than 1 km within three years of operation and about a third of the Atira population as well.
NEOSSat project data will be archived at the Canadian Astronomical Data Centre (CADC -
http://www2.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/cadc/). Because the CADC is not a member of the International Planetary Data Alliance and therefore, archiving data at the CADC would not meet NASA archiving requirements, we will archive all relevant NEOSSat project data in the NASA Planetary Data System's Small Bodies Node. These data will include value-added products produced by US Team members. Together, these NEOSSat mission data products will provide significant value to the rest of the US planetary science community.
During 2010 Tadesco attended a science team meeting, including Canadian team members and officials of the CSA, at the Banff Park Lodge in Banff, AB on Aug. 19-20 during which he gave a presentation on follow-up options on objects discovered by NEOSSat. Thus far, in addition to the CSS (whose founder, Steve Larson, is a member of the US science team), the 2.5-m MRO (E. Ryan) and 1.3-m RCT (E. Tedesco) have agreed to participate. In connection with support from the MRO 2.4-m on 02 June I met at PSI with Don Davis, Steve Larson, Faith Villas, and Eileen and Bill Ryan, and on 27 July with Steve Larson in Socorro, NM. Cooperation with advanced amateurs will be pursued next.
Another project was IRTF Mid-Infrared Observation of Dawn Target (4) Vesta, where beginning in January Tedesco worked with Mark Sykes and Matthew Chamberlain on reducing, analyzing, and preparing for publication of rotationally-resolved 11.7μm data obtained at the IRTF on the Dawn target asteroid (4) Vesta.
Papers
Cellino, A., Delbò, M., Bendjoya, Ph., and Tedesco, E. F. (2010). Polarimetric evidence of close similarity between members of the Karin and Koronis dynamical families. Icarus 209, 556-563. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2010.05.014]
K. Muinonen, I.N. Belskaya, A. Cellino, M. Delbo, A.C. Levasseur-Regourd, A. Penttila, E.F. Tedesco. (2010). A three-Parameter magnitude phase function for asteroids. Icarus 209, 542-555. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2010.04.003]
Cellino, A., Belskaya, I., Delbò, M., Levasseur-Regourd, A.-C., Muinonen, K., Penttilä, A., and Tedesco, E. F. (2010). A new three-parameter H,G1,G2 magnitude phase function for asteroids. In Electromagnetic and Light Scattering XII, Proceedings of the 12th conference - Helsinki, 28 June - 02July 2010. Edited by Karri Muinonen et al.. Helsinki: Helsinki University Print, 2010, p.22. [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010els..conf...22C]
