Expected spectral characteristics of (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, targets of the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 missions

de León, J.; Campins, H.; Morate, D.; De Prá, M.; Alí-Lagoa, V.; Licandro, J.; Rizos, J. L.; Pinilla-Alonso, N.; DellaGiustina, D. N.; Lauretta, D. S.; Popescu, M.; Lorenzi, V.
Bibliographical reference

Icarus, Volume 313, p. 25-37.

Advertised on:
10
2018
Journal
Number of authors
12
IAC number of authors
6
Citations
23
Refereed citations
22
Description
NASA's OSIRIS-REx and JAXA's Hayabusa2 sample-return missions are currently on their way to encounter primitive near-Earth asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, respectively. Spectral and dynamical evidence indicates that these near-Earth asteroids originated in the inner part of the main belt. There are several primitive collisional families in this region, and both these asteroids are most likely to have originated in the Polana-Eulalia family complex. We present the expected spectral characteristics of both targets based on our studies of four primitive collisional families in the inner belt: Polana-Eulalia, Erigone, Sulamitis, and Clarissa. Observations were obtained in the framework of our PRIMitive Asteroids Spectroscopic Survey (PRIMASS). Our results are especially relevant to the planning and interpretation of in situ images and spectra to be obtained by the two spacecraft during the encounters with their targets.
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Minor Bodies of the Solar System
This project studies the physical and compositional properties of the so-called minor bodies of the Solar System, that includes asteroids, icy objects, and comets. Of special interest are the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs), including those considered the most distant objects detected so far (Extreme-TNOs or ETNOs); the comets and the comet-asteroid
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