STUDIES OF THE SMALL BODIES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM REVEAL IMPORTANT CLUES ABOUT THE CONDENSATION AND FORMATION OF PLANETESIMAL BODIES AND ULTIMATELY PLANETS IN PLANETARY SYSTEMS. DYNAMICS OF SMALL BODIES HAVE BEEN UTILIZED TO MODEL GIANT PLANET MIGRATION WITHIN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM COLORS HAVE BEEN USED TO EXPLORE COMPOSITIONAL GRADIENTS WITHIN THE PROTOPLANETARY DISK &STUDIES OF THE SIZE-FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS MAY REVEAL COMPOSITIONAL DEPENDENCES ON PLANETESIMAL STRENGTH LIMITING MODELS OF PLANETARY GROWTH FROM COLLISIONAL AGGREGRATION. STUDIES OF THE OPTICAL LIGHTCURVES OF ASTEROIDS ALSO YIELD IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON SHAPE AND POTENTIAL BINARITY OF ASTEROIDAL BODIES. LIGHTCURVES OF HILDA AND TROJAN ASTEROIDS POPULATIONS YIELD KEY INFORMATION ABOUT THE PRIMORDIAL SHAPE AND BINARY FRACTION OF THESE SMALL BODY POPULATIONS AND THEIR ORIGINS. MILLI-MAG KEPLER PHOTOMETRY WILL TIGHTLY CONSTRAIN BOTH OF THE LATTER CHARACTERISTICS. THESE 2 POPULATIONS ARE IN RESONANCES WITH JUPITER&COLLISIONAL FREQUENCIES WITHIN THESE POPULATIONS ARE THE LOWEST WITHIN INNER SOLAR SYSTEM SMALL BODY POPULATIONS. RESULTS FROM THE WISE SURVEY SUGGEST THAT ~20% OF TROJANS&~40% OF HILDAS ARE EITHER EXTREMELY ELONGATED OBJECTS OR BINARIES. KEPLER OPTICAL LIGHT CURVES ARE REQUIRED TO CONFIRM THESE CONTROVERSIAL FINDINGS. GROUND BASED SURVEYS ARE NOT OPTIMAL FOR THIS TYPE OF PHOTOMETRIC VARIABILITY STUDY DUE TO LARGE AMOUNTS OF OBSERVING TIME REQUIRED&NIGHTLY ALIASING EFFECTS ON LIGHTCURVES. KEPLER HOWEVER IS IDEAL FOR THIS TYPE OF PHOTOMETRIC SURVEY OF ASTEROID VARIABILITY DUE TO THE PHOTOMETRIC STABILITY OF THE OBSERVING PLATFORM AND THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE C11 FIELD AND THE L4 TROJAN CLOUD. METHODOLOGY: WE HAVE IDENTIFIED 100 OBJECTS FOR STUDY IN THE HILDA AND TROJAN ASTEROIDS TO BE STUDIED WITH KEPLER IN C11-13 WITH MAGNITUDES OF MV<20. DUE TO THE OVERLAP BETWEEN THE CAMPAIGN 11 FIELD AND THE L4 TROJAN CLOUD OUR REQUEST FOR DATA REPRESENTS 70 OBJECTS CAMPAIGN 11 23 OBJECTS IN CAMPAIGN 12&7 OBJECTS IN CAMPAIGN 13. THESE OBJECTS ARE NOT STATIONARY WITHIN THE KEPLER FIELDS RATHER THEY MOVE ACROSS THE FIELD RESULTING IN A MEAN TIME IN THE KEPLER FIELD OF VIEW ON ACTIVE SILICON OF 24 DAYS. DUE TO THE MOTION OF THESE TARGETS THE KEPLER SCIENCE CENTER ASSESSES SOLAR SYSTEM PROGRAM AS CONTAINING MORE TARGETS THAN PROPOSED NUMBER OF OBJECTS (IN C8 6 HILDA TARGETS ARE ASSESSED AS 4847 TARGETS BY THE KEPLER SCIENCE CENTER) THUS THIS PROPOSAL SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A LARGE PROPOSAL. WE WILL UTILIZE DATA OBTAINED WITH THE 30 MINUTE KEPLER CADENCE TO DETERMINE ROTATIONAL PERIODS FOR OUR SELECTED TARGETS. THE RATIO OF LIGHTCURVE AMPLITUDES WILL SUBSEQUENTLY BE UTILIZED TO DETERMINE BODY ELONGATION AND/OR BINARITY. RELEVANCE TO K2: THIS STUDY WILL OBTAIN HIGH FIDELITY LIGHTCURVES FOR SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS IN THE KEPLER FIELD OF VIEW DURING CAMPAIGNS 11-13 TO DETERMINE IF THESE OBJECTS ORIGINATED IN THE KUIPER BELT AND LATER MIGRATED AND ARE AMENABLE TO THE OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CONSTRAINTS OF THE MISSION AND DEFINED OBSERVING FIELDS.
$0FY2017National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Seti Institute, Mountain View CA