Infrared observations of asteroids from space: The past and future

Abstract

Infrared observations from space have large sensitivity and total instantaneous field of view advantages over ground-based measurements. The limits to telescope performance from thermal emission from the atmosphere and sky noise are eliminated in space and the instrument can be cooled to temperatures where the photon noise from the zodiacal background provides the fundamental limit to the sensitivity of the system. Furthermore, the entire thermal infrared spectral range is available; the atmospheric is virtually opaque at the wavelengths of molecular absorption bands from water vapor and CO2 to ground-based observations. Space-based infrared radiometry from the experiments described in this article supplied the basis for the largest, consistent set of derived diameters and albedos of asteroids. Radiometry over a large spectral range and a large span of phase angles provides essential information of the detailed thermal properties of a body. Infrared measurements resolve the ambiguity of whether a visual observation is of a small highly reflective object or a large dark one. Infrared spectroscopy obtained by the previous space-based experiments, and the spectral capability of two infrared missions to be flown within the next several years, is a powerful remote sensing tool to assay the mineralogy of a surface. A description is given of what knowledge has been and will be gained from past and future infrared missions on the physical characteristics of asteroids. Why the database derived from previous satellites remains the major source of new radiometric measurements is explained and the benefits to be had from a space-based infrared spectrometer/photometer dedicated to studying small bodies in the solar system presented.