Seminar on "Small Bodies and Large Surveys"

The small bodies (asteroids, comets, and Kuiper-belt objects) are the remnants of the blocks that accreted to form the planets 4.6 Gyrs ago. Their importance as witnesses of the Solar System history emerged in past decades, but the current description of their dynamical, surface, and physical properties is insufficient to guide theoretical works.

I will describe how astronomical sky surveys can be mined for
Solar system objects. Over the last few years, this approach
has provided samples much larger than decades of targeted observations,
by extracting observations from, e.g., VISTA, SDSS, and Gaia surveys.
I will highlight the strength of this approach with examples that changed our understanding of the asteroid population.

Finally, I will present a prospective of the contribution of the ESA Euclid mission to Solar system science. Scheduled for launch next July, Euclid will conduct a six-years visible and near-infrared imaging and spectroscopic survey over 15,000 sq. deg down to 24.5 mag. Although the survey will avoid ecliptic latitudes below 15 deg., the survey pattern in repeated sequences of four broad-band filters is well-adapted to Solar System objects detection and characterization.

I will present how Euclid will constrain the orbits of Solar system objects, their morphology (activity and multiplicity), physical
properties (rotation period, spin orientation, and 3-D shape), and
surface composition.

10^th April 2024; 4:30 p.m. (Lisbon time); 5:30 p.m. (Paris time)

Link: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/91699840905