Related papers: Characterization of the near-Earth Asteroid 2002NY…
The rotational properties of $\sim$10~m-scale asteroids are poorly understood with only a few measurements. Additionally, collisions or thermal recoil can spin their rotations to periods less than a few seconds obfuscating their study due…
The near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (175706) 1996 FG3 is a particularly interesting spacecraft target: a binary asteroid with a low-DeltaV heliocentric orbit. The orbit of its satellite has provided valuable information about its mass density…
In an attempt to further characterise the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population we present 38 new light-curves acquired between September 2020 and November 2023 for NEAs (7335) 1989 JA, (7822) 1991 CS, (154244) 2002 KL6 and (159402) 1999…
We report on observations of near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We have spent 19.9 h of observing time with channel 2 (4.5 {\mu}m) of the Infrared Array Camera and detected the target within the 2{\sigma}…
We present our investigations of the physical and dynamical properties of selected Earth co-orbital asteroids. The photometric optical light curves as well as rotation periods and pole solutions for a sample of four Earth co-orbital…
Near-Earth asteroid (469219) Kamo'oalewa is an Earth quasi-satellite, temporarily trapped in a 1:1 orbital resonance with our planet. Despite its dynamical relevance and the hypothesis that it may be a lunar ejecta fragment, its physical…
Tumbling asteroids belong to a small group of objects, whose angular velocity vector is unaligned with any of its principal axes of inertia. This leads to challenging efforts to model the trajectory of any spacecraft designed to orbit these…
We seek evidence of the Yarkovsky effect among Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) by measuring the Yarkovsky-related orbital drift from the orbital fit. To prevent the occurrence of unreliable detections we employ a high precision dynamical model,…
Thermophysical models allow for improved constraints on the physical and thermal surface properties of asteroids beyond what can be inferred from more simple thermal modeling, provided a sufficient number of observations is available. We…
Observations with the adaptive optics system on the Very Large Telescope reveal that outer main belt asteroid (702) Alauda has a small satellite with primary to secondary diameter ratio of $\sim$56. The secondary revolves around the primary…
Ground-based characterization of spacecraft targets prior to mission operations is critical to properly plan and execute measurements. Understanding surface properties, like mineralogical composition and phase curves (expected brightness at…
The asteroid 2014 JO25, considered to be "potentially hazardous" by the Minor Planet Center, was spectroscopically followed during its close-Earth encounter on 19th and 20th of April 2017. The spectra of the asteroid were taken with the low…
The dynamics and control of a satellite in proximity to the asteroid Apophis across its Earth close approach in 2029 is evaluated and investigated. First, the feasibility of carrying out close proximity operations about Apophis when in its…
Our planet has one permanently bound satellite -the Moon-, a likely large number of mini-moons or transient irregular natural satellites, and three temporary natural retrograde satellites or quasi-satellites. These quasi-moons -(164207)…
The discovery of 1991 VG on 1991 November 6 attracted an unprecedented amount of attention as it was the first near-Earth object (NEO) ever found on an Earth-like orbit. At that time, it was considered by some as the first representative of…
The aim is to show that in case of low probability of asteroid collision with Earth, the appropriate selection and weighing of the data are crucial for the impact investigation, and to analyze the impact possibilities using extensive…
<abridged> NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) has been proposed with the aim to capture a small asteroid a few meters in size and redirect it into an orbit around the Moon. There it can be investigated at leisure by astronauts aboard an…
Solar system object P/2010 A2 is the first-noticed example of the aftermath of a recently disrupted asteroid, probably resulting from a collision. Nearly a year elapsed between its inferred initiation in early 2009 and its eventual…
P/2010 A2 is an object on an asteroidal orbit that was observed to have an extended tail or debris trail in January 2010. In this work, we fit the outburst of P/2010 A2 with a conical burst model, and verify previous suspicions that this…
The near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon (1983 TB) is an attractive object not only from a scientific viewpoint but also because of JAXA's DESTINY+ target. The rotational lightcurve and spin properties were investigated based on the data…