The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has the potential to enhance our understanding of near-Earth objects (NEOs). We present results of investigations into the observability of NEOs given the nominal observing requirements of JWST on elongation (85-135 degrees) and non-sidereal rates (<30mas/s). We find that approximately 75% of NEOs can be observed in a given year. However, observers will need to wait for appropriate observing windows. We find that JWST can easily execute photometric observations of meter-sized NEOs which will enhance our understanding of the small NEO population.
@article{arxiv.1510.05637,
title = {Observing Near-Earth Objects with the James Webb Space Telescope},
author = {Cristina A. Thomas and Paul Abell and Julie Castillo-Rogez and Nicholas Moskovitz and Michael Mueller and Vishnu Reddy and Andrew Rivkin and Erin Ryan and John Stansberry},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1510.05637},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
This paper is one of a series for a special issue on Solar System observations with JWST in PASP. Accepted 10/02/15. Preprint 22 pages, 4 figures