Small bodies€¦ · Small bodies & their immediate neighborhood Moonlets and rings: A study of...

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Small bodies

Asteroids:dryor wetor active(main-beltcomets)SatellitessearchandcharacterizationShapeandcollisionmodels,Near-EarthObjectsSurfacecomposition,searchforwater&organics

CometsNear-IRandinfraredregionsarefundamentaltostudypropertiesofreleasedmolecules

D/Hratio,nuclearspintemperaturesofsomespecies(e.g.NH3,H2Oanddissociatedproducts)Organicandprebioticchemistry

Centaurs&Trans-Neptunians arefaint,BUTbrightestcanbeobservedwithAO(directlyorstarappulse)

cryo-volcanismactivity,ringstructures,satellitese.g.Chariklo,Chiron?,Haumea

Surfacepropertiesandcollisionhistory

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Small bodies & their immediate neighborhood

Moonletsandrings:Astudyofplanetaryevolution,solarsystemdynamicsandcollisions

AsteroidHebeMarsset etal.2017

TripleasteroidElektraandMinerva.Yangetal.2017

Neptune’sringarcs.VoyagerandHST/Nicmos

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Origin of water on Earth

Terrestrialplanetsgottheirwaterviatransportfromsmallsolarsystembodiessuchasasteroids,comets,trans-NeptuniansAcompositionalofthemostprimitive/icyobjectsofoursolarsystem(comets,asteroids)willhelpunderstandtheoriginofEarth’swater

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Solar system (Cont’d)

Giantplanets&satellitesAtmospherecomposition,circulation/dynamicsEnergybudgetIsotopicratiosandabundancesSatellites

(cryo-)volcanism(e.g.Enceladus,Triton,Pluto)surface/atmospherecompositionandboundaryconditions

Titan:Lakeformationandsurface/atmosphereinteractionMonitoringofIo’svolcanoesandEuropa’ssurfaceMappingofEuropaandsearchforsignatureoforganicmaterial

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Pushing the limits of solar system exploration

ELTswillprovidedramaticboostin:Sensitivity:

~D2(~10timesthecollectingareaofKeck,or~150timesthatofHST).~D4forbackgroundlimitedobservationsofpointsourceswithAdaptiveOptics(AO)(i.e.~200timesthatoftoday’s8mtelescopes)!

Fainter,smallerobjectsbecomeaccessibleNear-IRspectrophotometryofsmall/distantbodies/structuresnearbrightobjects(e.g.smallsatellitesofgiantplanets)

Angularresolution:AOwillprovide~12timesbetterspatialresolutionthanHST

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TMT spatial resolution for solar system objects

6AO,VLT Dawn,S/C

Ceres

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TMT spatial resolution for solar system objects

7

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Summary

WidespreaduseofAO(@high-contrastwheneveritmakessense)

DeformablemirrorswithhighdensityofactuatorsLownoise-levelwavefront sensorsFastreal-time-controllers

CombinationofAOwithspectrographsIFUsandlow/medium-resnear-IRspectroscopy(mineralogicalstudy)Fiber-fedhigh-resVIS/near-IRspectroscopy(planetatmospheres,isotopesstudies)

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Summary (Cont’d)

Operationsconstraints:FastinstrumentmodeswitchCapabilitytotrackatnon-siderealrates(includingforfastmovingtargetslikeNEOsorcomets)Fastobservatory(ToO)andfasttargetacquisitionFlexiblequeueschedulingPSFcharacterization/modeling(deconvolution,PSFreconstruction)foradaptiveoptics