Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy
© 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We examined two decades of SpeX/NASA Infrared Telescope Facility observations from the Small Main-Belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey (SMASS) and the MIT-Hawaii Near-Earth Object Spectroscopic Survey (MITHNEOS) to investigate uncertainti...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Astronomical Society
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133767 |
| _version_ | 1826207768689770496 |
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| author | Marsset, Michaël DeMeo, Francesca E Binzel, Richard P Bus, Schelte J Burbine, Thomas H Burt, Brian Moskovitz, Nicholas Polishook, David Rivkin, Andrew S Slivan, Stephen M Thomas, Cristina |
| author_facet | Marsset, Michaël DeMeo, Francesca E Binzel, Richard P Bus, Schelte J Burbine, Thomas H Burt, Brian Moskovitz, Nicholas Polishook, David Rivkin, Andrew S Slivan, Stephen M Thomas, Cristina |
| author_sort | Marsset, Michaël |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We examined two decades of SpeX/NASA Infrared Telescope Facility observations from the Small Main-Belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey (SMASS) and the MIT-Hawaii Near-Earth Object Spectroscopic Survey (MITHNEOS) to investigate uncertainties and systematic errors in reflectance spectral slope measurements of asteroids. From 628 spectra of 11 solar analogs used for calibration of the asteroid spectra, we derived an uncertainty of σs ′ = 4.2 %, μ m-1 on slope measurements over 0.8-2.4 μm. Air mass contributes to -0.92% μm-1 per 0.1 unit air mass difference between the asteroid and the solar analog and therefore for an overall 2.8% μm-1 slope variability in SMASS and MITHNEOS designed to operate within 1.0-1.3 air mass. No additional observing conditions (including the parallactic angle, seeing, and humidity) were found to contribute systematically to slope change. We discuss implications for asteroid taxonomic classification works. Uncertainties provided in this study should be accounted for in future compositional investigation of small bodies to distinguish intrinsic heterogeneities from possible instrumental effects. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:54:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/133767 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:54:39Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | American Astronomical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1337672021-10-28T03:46:21Z Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy Marsset, Michaël DeMeo, Francesca E Binzel, Richard P Bus, Schelte J Burbine, Thomas H Burt, Brian Moskovitz, Nicholas Polishook, David Rivkin, Andrew S Slivan, Stephen M Thomas, Cristina © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We examined two decades of SpeX/NASA Infrared Telescope Facility observations from the Small Main-Belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey (SMASS) and the MIT-Hawaii Near-Earth Object Spectroscopic Survey (MITHNEOS) to investigate uncertainties and systematic errors in reflectance spectral slope measurements of asteroids. From 628 spectra of 11 solar analogs used for calibration of the asteroid spectra, we derived an uncertainty of σs ′ = 4.2 %, μ m-1 on slope measurements over 0.8-2.4 μm. Air mass contributes to -0.92% μm-1 per 0.1 unit air mass difference between the asteroid and the solar analog and therefore for an overall 2.8% μm-1 slope variability in SMASS and MITHNEOS designed to operate within 1.0-1.3 air mass. No additional observing conditions (including the parallactic angle, seeing, and humidity) were found to contribute systematically to slope change. We discuss implications for asteroid taxonomic classification works. Uncertainties provided in this study should be accounted for in future compositional investigation of small bodies to distinguish intrinsic heterogeneities from possible instrumental effects. 2021-10-27T19:56:32Z 2021-10-27T19:56:32Z 2020 2021-09-14T14:09:58Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133767 en 10.3847/1538-4365/AB7B5F The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society |
| spellingShingle | Marsset, Michaël DeMeo, Francesca E Binzel, Richard P Bus, Schelte J Burbine, Thomas H Burt, Brian Moskovitz, Nicholas Polishook, David Rivkin, Andrew S Slivan, Stephen M Thomas, Cristina Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy |
| title | Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy |
| title_full | Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy |
| title_fullStr | Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy |
| title_short | Twenty Years of SpeX: Accuracy Limits of Spectral Slope Measurements in Asteroid Spectroscopy |
| title_sort | twenty years of spex accuracy limits of spectral slope measurements in asteroid spectroscopy |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133767 |
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