The following document lists the file abstract/AHARRIS_ASTEROID.abs
from catalogue VI/111.
A plain copy of the file
(without headers/trailers) may be downloaded.
Our main scientific goal is to identify cometary activity in a number of asteroids thought to be of cometary origin. Up to 50% of near-Earth asteroids are suspected of being evolved or dormant comets. However, conclusive evidence of this in the case of any particular asteroid remains elusive, despite the considerable efforts devoted to this question in recent years by groups working with ground-based instruments. The best technique to date uses high-resolution surface photometry to search for faint visible comae extending beyond the seeing disk. Unfortunately, the best sensitivity achievable corresponds to a mass-loss rate of 0.1 kg/s, which is expected to be the upper limit for near-Earth cometary asteroids. We propose to search for thermal emission from dust comae around 9 such objects with ISOCAM using the 11.5 micron filter. The sensitivity of the ISOCAM observations should better the current state-of-the-art ground-based efforts by about an order of magnitude. A further objective is to gain information on physical characteristics of these targets, such as sizes and surface properties, by performing multi-filter photometry with ISOPHOT throughout the range of their thermal emission (5 - 60 microns). ISOPHOT offers a unique opportunity to carry out these measurements over the entire mid-infrared range and obtain an accurate thermal spectrum for each target at a well defined point in time. In cases where sizes and rotation parameters are known, this unique set of data will enable asteroid thermal models to be refined.