Spectral clustering tools applied to Ceres in preparation for the NASA OSIRIS-REx images of (101955) Bennu

Rizos, Juan; de Leon, Julia; Licandro, Javier; Campins, Humberto; System IAC, Solar
Bibliographical reference

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #50, id.312.18

Advertised on:
10
2018
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is currently on its way to the asteroid (101955) Bennu. Bennu is a primitive asteroid, characterized by a dark surface composed mainly of carbon compounds, organic, and silicates altered by the presence of water. In addition, due to its proximity to the Earth, is classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid (PHA). Among several instruments, the mission OSIRIS-REx has OCAMS, a set of three cameras (PolyCam, MapCam and SamCam) with different configurations to capture images in the visible and map the entire surface. Specifically, MapCam has a set of four filters centered at 0.44, 0.55, 0.70 and 0.85 microns respectively, with which it will be possible make color maps. The last three filters are particularly well designed for detect the absorption band at 0.7 microns produced by the silicates altered by the presence of liquid water (phyllosilicates). In addition, color maps will make it possible to detect the existence of hydrated minerals on the surface of Bennu more quickly and with much better spatial resolution than the spectra provided by the OVIRS instrument (infrared spectrograph), also aboard the ship. This communication presents the results obtained from the analysis of the images of the asteroid (1) Ceres taken by the Framing Camera of NASA's Dawn mission. This camera has a set of 7 filters in the visible range, so the techniques used for the spectral clustering analysis of the (1) Ceres images will serve as preparation for the analysis of the Bennu images obtained with OCAMS.