Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of the current uses of technology to find and characterize asteroids and comets, specifically those methods used for NEOs and the inherent challenges involved. This will be followed by a summary of the present state-of-the-art of what is known and inferred about the external and internal properties of these bodies. These properties include size, material, relative velocities and distribution about the Solar System. Finally, it takes a look at what characterization programs are planned and in development, as well as possible future infrastructure that could provide improved detection and characterization capabilities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abe, Shinsuke et al. 2006. “Mass and Local Topography Measurements of Itokawa by Hayabusa.” Science 312(5778): 1344–47. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1126272.
Baer, James, and Steven R Chesley. 2008. “Astrometric Masses of 21 Asteroids, and an Integrated Asteroid Ephemeris.” Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy 100(1): 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-007-9103-8.
Binzel, Richard P, Vishnu Reddy, and Tasha Dunn. 2015. “The Near-Earth Object Population: Connections to Comets, Main-Belt Asteroids, and Meteorites.” In Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, 243–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18gzdvc.19.
Borovička, Jiří, Pavel Spurný, and Peter Brown. 2015. “Small Near-Earth Asteroids as a Source of Meteorites.” In Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, 257–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18gzdvc.20.
Bottke, W et al. 2005. “Linking the Collisional History of the Main Asteroid Belt to Its Dynamical Excitation and Depletion.” Icarus 179(1): 63–94. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103505001958.
Bottke, William F., David Vokrouhlický, David P. Rubincam, and David Nesvorný. 2006. “THE YARKOVSKY AND YORP EFFECTS: Implications for Asteroid Dynamics.” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 34(1): 157–91. http://annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.earth.34.031405.125154.
Britt, Dan T., Don Yeomans, K Housen, and G Consolmagno. 2002. “Asteroid Density, Porosity, and Structure.” In Asteroids III, ed. William Bottke. Arizona, USA: University of Arizona Press, 485–500.
Brownlee, D E. 2003. “Stardust: Comet and Interstellar Dust Sample Return Mission.” Journal of Geophysical Research 108(E10): 8111. https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JE002087.
Buczkowski, D L et al. 2012. “Large-Scale Troughs on Vesta: A Signature of Planetary Tectonics.” Geophysical Research Letters 39(18): n/a-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052959.
Capaccioni, F et al. 2015. “The Organic-Rich Surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as Seen by VIRTIS/Rosetta.” Science 347(6220): aaa0628-1-aaa0628-4. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaa0628.
Carry, Benoit. 2012. “Density of Asteroids.” Planetary and Space Science 73(1): 98–118. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0032063312000773.
Chesley, Steven R et al. 2014. “Orbit and Bulk Density of the OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroid (101955) Bennu.” Icarus 235: 5–22. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103514001067.
Chodas, Paul. 2017. “Center for Near Earth Object Studies.” 2017(13/04/2017). https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Chyba, Christopher F., Paul J. Thomas, and Kevin J. Zahnle. 1993. “The 1908 Tunguska Explosion: Atmospheric Disruption of a Stony Asteroid.” Nature 361(6407): 40–44.
DeMeo, F E, and B Carry. 2014. “Solar System Evolution from Compositional Mapping of the Asteroid Belt.” Nature 505(7485): 629–34. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12908.
Farnocchia, D et al. 2013. “Yarkovsky-Driven Impact Risk Analysis for Asteroid (99942) Apophis.” Icarus 224(1): 192–200. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103513000821.
Giorgini, J D. 2002. “Asteroid 1950 DA’s Encounter with Earth in 2880: Physical Limits of Collision Probability Prediction.” Science 296(5565): 132–36. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1068191.
Glassmeier, Karl-Heinz et al. 2007. “The Rosetta Mission: Flying Towards the Origin of the Solar System.” Space Science Reviews 128(1–4): 1–21. http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11214-006-9140-8.
Greenstreet, Sarah, Henry Ngo, and Brett Gladman. 2012. “The Orbital Distribution of Near-Earth Objects inside Earth’s Orbit.” Icarus 217(1): 355–66. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103511004374.
Harris, Alan W., and Germano D’Abramo. 2015. “The Population of Near-Earth Asteroids.” Icarus 257(May): 302–12. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0019103515002067.
Hartzell, Christine M, and Daniel J Scheeres. 2011. “The Role of Cohesive Forces in Particle Launching on the Moon and Asteroids.” Planetary and Space Science 59(14): 1758–68. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063311001644.
Huang, Jiangchuan et al. 2013. “The Ginger-Shaped Asteroid 4179 Toutatis: New Observations from a Successful Flyby of Chang’e-2.” Scientific Reports 3(1): 3411. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep03411.
Jenniskens, P et al. 2009. “The Impact and Recovery of Asteroid 2008 TC3.” Nature 458(7237): 485–88. http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nature07920.
Jewitt, David et al. 2014. “DISINTEGRATING ASTEROID P/2013 R3.” The Astrophysical Journal 784(1): L8.
Keller, Lindsay P et al. 2006. “Infrared Spectroscopy of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Samples Returned by Stardust.” Science 314(5806): 1728–31. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1135796.
Lowry, S C et al. 2014. “The Internal Structure of Asteroid (25143) Itokawa as Revealed by Detection of YORP Spin-Up.” Astronomy & Astrophysics 562: A48. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201322602.
Mainzer, A et al. 2011. “Preliminary Results from Neowise: An Enhancement to the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer for Solar System Science.” The Astrophysical Journal 731(1): 53. http://stacks.iop.org/0004-637X/731/i=1/a=53.
Mainzer, Amy K., Fumihiko Usui, and David E Trilling. 2015. “Space-Based Thermal Infrared Studies of Asteroids.” In Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, 89–106. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18gzdvc.11.
Margot, J L. 2002. “Binary Asteroids in the Near-Earth Object Population.” Science 296(5572): 1445–48. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1072094.
Michel, Patrick et al. 2015. “Asteroids Advances and New Perspectives.” In Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, 3–10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18gzdvc.7.
Miller, J.K. et al. 2002. “Determination of Shape, Gravity, and Rotational State of Asteroid 433 Eros.” Icarus 155(1): 3–17. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0019103501967533.
Minton, David A, and Renu Malhotra. 2009. “A Record of Planet Migration in the Main Asteroid Belt.” Nature 457(7233): 1109–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07778.
Miyamoto, Hideaki et al. 2007. “Regolith Migration and Sorting on Asteroid Itokawa.” Science 316(5827): 1011–14. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1134390.
Morbidelli, Alessandro et al. 2000. “Source Regions and Timescales for the Delivery of Water to the Earth.” Meteoritics & Planetary Science 35(6): 1309–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2000.tb01518.x.
Morbidelli, Alessandro et al. 2010. “Evidence From the Asteroid Belt for a Violent Past Evolution of Jupiter’s Orbit.” The Astronomical Journal 140(5): 1391–1401. http://stacks.iop.org/1538-3881/140/i=5/a=1391?key=crossref.e262f8e313f49990efff9f23d5938812.
Nakamura, Tomoki et al. 2011. “Itokawa Dust Particles: A Direct Link Between S-Type Asteroids and Ordinary Chondrites.” Science 333(6046): 1113–16. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6046/1113.abstract.
Ostro, Steven J et al. 2002. “Asteroid Radar Astronomy.” Asteroids III. Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson: 151–68.
Patzold, M. et al. 2011. “Asteroid 21 Lutetia: Low Mass, High Density.” Science 334(6055): 491–92. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1209389.
Popova, Olga P. et al. 2013. “Chelyabinsk Airburst, Damage Assessment, Meteorite Recovery, and Characterization.” Science 342(6162): 1069–73. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1242642.
Pravec, P et al. 2010. “Formation of Asteroid Pairs by Rotational Fission.” Nature 466(7310): 1085–88. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09315.
Rayman, Marc D, Thomas C Fraschetti, Carol A Raymond, and Christopher T Russell. 2006. “Dawn: A Mission in Development for Exploration of Main Belt Asteroids Vesta and Ceres.” Acta Astronautica 58(11): 605–16. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576506000671.
Reddy, Vishnu et al. 2015. “Mineralogy and Surface Composition of Asteroids.” In Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, 43–64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18gzdvc.9.
Reitsema, Harold J, and Edward T Lu. 2015. “Sentinel: A Space Telescope Program to Create a 100-Year Asteroid Impact Warning.” In Handbook of Cosmic Hazards and Planetary Defense, eds. Joseph N Pelton and Firooz Allahdadi. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 569–81. http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-319-03952-7_42.
Richardsonjr, J, H Melosh, R Greenberg, and D Obrien. 2005. “The Global Effects of Impact-Induced Seismic Activity on Fractured Asteroid Surface Morphology.” Icarus 179(2): 325–49. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103505002472.
Rozitis, Ben, Eric MacLennan, and Joshua P Emery. 2014. “Cohesive Forces Prevent the Rotational Breakup of Rubble-Pile Asteroid (29075) 1950 DA.” Nature 512(7513): 174–76. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13632.
Russell, C T et al. 2012. “Dawn at Vesta: Testing the Protoplanetary Paradigm.” Science 336(6082): 684–86. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.1219381.
Scheeres, D.J., C.M. Hartzell, P Sánchez, and M Swift. 2010. “Scaling Forces to Asteroid Surfaces: The Role of Cohesion.” Icarus 210(2): 968–84. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103510002812.
Scheeres, D.J, B Khushalani, and R.A Werner. 2000. “Estimating Asteroid Density Distributions from Shape and Gravity Information.” Planetary and Space Science 48(10): 965–71. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063300000647.
Scott, Edward R D et al. 2015. “Early Impact History and Dynamical Origin of Differentiated Meteorites and Asteroids.” In Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, 573–96. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18gzdvc.36.
Shepard, Michael K et al. 2017. “Radar Observations and Shape Model of Asteroid 16 Psyche.” Icarus 281: 388–403. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103516300288.
Sokolov, L L et al. 2012. “Impact Trajectories of the Asteroid Apophis in the 21st Century.” Solar System Research 46(4): 291–300. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0038094612040077.
Sugimoto, Y, G Radice, and J.P. Sanchez. 2013. “Effects of NEO Composition on Deflection Methodologies.” Acta Astronautica 90(1): 14–21. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576512003402.
Tsuda, Yuichi et al. 2013. “System Design of the Hayabusa 2—Asteroid Sample Return Mission to 1999 JU3.” Acta Astronautica 91(0): 356–62. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009457651300218X.
Veverka, J et al. 2001. “The Landing of the NEAR-Shoemaker Spacecraft on Asteroid 433 Eros.” Nature 413(6854): 390–93. https://doi.org/10.1038/35096507.
Vokrouhlický, D. et al. 2015. “The Yarkovsky and YORP Effects.” In Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, 509–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18gzdvc.33.
Yeomans, D K. 1999. “Estimating the Mass of Asteroid 433 Eros During the NEAR Spacecraft Flyby.” Science 285(5427): 560–61. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.285.5427.560.
Yoshimitsu, Tetsuo et al. 2009. “Hayabusa-Final Autonomous Descent and Landing Based on Target Marker Tracking.” Acta Astronautica 65(5–6): 657–65. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576509000368.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crowe, W. (2019). What Are NEOs and the Technical Means and Constraints of Solar System Mapping?. In: Schmidt, N. (eds) Planetary Defense. Space and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01000-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01000-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00999-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01000-3
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)