Search for Asteroidal Satellites Using Adaptive Optics

Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

AST 0098726 Merline With this award Dr. William Merline, at the Southwest Research Institute, will continue a program of searching for asteroid satellites using adaptive optics systems on a number of different telescopes. An earlier program, which investigated 250 asteroids and discovered three asteroid satellites, contributed significantly to our understanding of asteroids. The frequency and nature of such binary systems provide strong constraints on the satellite forming process and on the collisional evolution of the general asteroid population. The satellite orbits can be used to directly determine asteroid masses, which combined with the asteroid diameter, allows determination of density, a fundamental property related to internal structure and composition. The new work will obtain spectra and colors for individual components of the asteroid-satellite systems. This will provide a critical test of the relationship between, and origin of, the components. ***