Bibcode
Pinilla-Alonso, N.; de León, J.; Morate, D.; de Prá, Mario; Lorenzi, Vania; Licandro, J.; Campins, Humberto; Ali-Lagoa, Victor
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #49, id.117.08
Advertised on:
10
2017
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Primitive asteroids contain the most pristine material that gave birth
to the rocky planets. Interest in spectral data from primitive asteroids
that could be the source of the primitive near-Earth asteroids (NEAs)
has increased in anticipation of the two sample-return missions that
will reach their targets in the next four years and bring samples to the
Earth within five years. Concurrently, the discovery of water ice on the
surfaces of two primitive asteroids (24 Themis and 65 Cybele) placed the
focus on the outer-belt (orbits with semi-major axis larger than 2.82
AU), where more asteroids could harbor water ice on, or below the
surface.In 2010 we started a survey, called the PRIMitive Asteroids
Spectroscopic Survey (PRIMASS), to collect spectra of primitive
asteroids all through the Solar System. Up to now, PRIMASS library
(PRIMASS-L) contains more than 530 spectra (0.4 - 2.5 μm) of
primitive asteroids (> 90% of the asteroids had no spectroscopic data
before) in the inner and outer belt. The aim of this survey is to
provide the community with a comprehensive collection of data that
enable us to study the surface composition of primitive asteroids by
means of visible and near-infrared spectroscopy.Our plans for the close
future include making PRIMASS-L publicly available in proper timing to
be used by the teams of the OSIRIS-REx (NASA) and Hayabusa 2 (JAXA)
missions. These missions will characterize two primitive near-Earth
asteroids in detail, and the Earth-based libraries, as PRIMASS-L, will
establish the broader framework and maximize the value of the spacecraft
results. PRIMASS-L will also serve as a quality-check database for the
Gaia spectroscopic products that will be published in its final release,
by the end of the nominal mission in 2019.In parallel, we plan to
continue observing at least for four more semesters (up to semester
2019A). After almost 10 years of data acquisition, the PRIMASS database
will contain about 700 spectra of primitive asteroids in the inner and
outer belt.In this work, we present the current state of the PRIMASS
survey, and we include major results from the data already analyzed.
Finally, we will draft the plans for the future.