GBT11B-215

Thermal Radiometry Of Near-Earth Asteroid 2005 YU55

Abstract

Ground-based remote sensing observations have provided most of our knowledge of the near-Earth asteroids. However, few remote sensing techniques provide information on the sub-surfaces of asteroids. We propose a new technique: long-wavelength thermal radiometry. Thermal flux measurements at mm-to-cm wavelengths would allow us to determine the temperature and heat capacity of a target asteroid's subsurface to depths of 60-90 cm. Only objects passing very close enough to Earth are bright enough for their thermal emission to be detectable at long wavelengths, and to date no near-Earth asteroid has been observed with long-wavelength radiometry. 2005 YU55 will make a very close (350,000 km) approach to Earth in November 2011. We request measurements of YU55's brightness at C, X, Ku, Ka, Q, and W bands, over a 10-hour period centered on the close approach. These observations will complement radar imaging of YU55 scheduled at Arecibo, GBT, and Goldstone and radar speckle tracking scheduled at

Investigators

Name	Institution
Jean-Luc Margot	California at Los Angeles, University of
Amy Lovell	Agnes Scott College
Bryan Butler	National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Lance Benner	Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Michael Busch *	SETI Institute

* indicates the PI