Minor Bodies of the Solar System

    General
    Description

    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 transitional objects (Centaurs and main belt comets or MBCs); the primitive asteroids. The last two groups contain the most primordial and pristine material of the Solar System and so they provide the clues to understand the origin and the subsequent evolution of our system. Among asteroid population, the near-Earth asteroids or NEAs, as well as the potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) are of particular interest: due to their proximity to the Earth, they are the most accesible to spacecraft and so are ideal for in-situ or even sample-return space missions. In addition they are considered as future potential resources of materials (asteroid mining), and they are also impact hazards for the Earth. Regarding primitive asteroids, it is remarkable the spectroscopic survey (visible and near-infrared) led by the PI of this project (PRIMitive Asteroids Spectroscopic Survey - PRIMASS). This survey received financial support from NASA (17-PDART17_2-0097, PI: N. Pinilla-Alonso, 137.000€ - 2 years) in order to upload and archive at the Small Bodies Node of the NASA Planetary Data System the more than 800 spectra obtained.

    The compositional surface properties, as well as the physical and thermal properties of these objects are inferred through imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy in a wide range of wavelengths (from 0.35 up to 24 microns). Data are interpreted using scattering and thermo-physical models. This project works also in the study of the physical properties of the cometary nuclei, as well as properties of dust and coma in the tails of the MBCs and the mechanisms that generate them.

    This group maintains several international collaborations with other groups, and some of their members are also members of (1) the Science Team of the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission, in particular the Image Processing Working Group, were they work with the images obtained with the OCAMS suite of cameras; (2) the coordination of an international group to study NEAs (EURONEAR); (3) the central core of the proponents of ESA M5 missions CASTALIA, CASTAway, and Hera; (4) the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science - CLASS (NASA); (5) the Solar System group of the Euclid consortium; (6) the surveys J-PLUS and J-PASS for the exploitation of observations of Solar System objects; (7) the Solar System working group of Gaia and JWST.

    Principal investigator
    Project manager
    Collaborators
    Dr.
    Noemí Pinilla-Alonso
    Dr.
    Humberto Campins
    Dr.
    Fernando Moreno Danvila
    Dr.
    Y. Fernández
    Dr.
    José Luis Ortiz
    Dr.
    R. Duffard
    Prof.
    R. Hil-Hutton

    Related publications

    Visible and near-infrared observations of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov with the 10.4-m GTC and the 3.6-m TNG telescopes 2020MNRAS.495.2053D
    Characterization of the June epsilon Ophiuchids meteoroid stream and the comet 300P/Catalina 2020A&A...636A.122M
    An artificial impact on the asteroid (162173) Ryugu formed a crater in the gravity-dominated regime 2020Sci...368...67A
    The spatial distribution of impact craters on Ryugu 2020Icar..33813527H
    Analysis in the visible range of NASA Lucy mission targets: Eurybates, Polymele, Orus and Donaldjohanson. 2020Icar..33813463S
    The spectroscopic properties of the Lixiaohua family, cradle of Main Belt Comets 2020Icar..33813473D
    An ultra-short period rocky super-Earth orbiting the G2-star HD 80653★ 2020A&A...633A.133F
    Microquasar V404 Cyg /GS 2023+338: MASTER optical observations during the June and December 2015 super-outbursts 2019NewA...72...42L
    The MASTER Global Robotic Telescope Network: Observations of Asteroid NEA 2015 TB145 2019ARep...63.1056Z
    The descent and bouncing path of the Hayabusa2 lander MASCOT at asteroid (162173) Ryugu 2019A&A...632L...3S
    The MASCOT landing area on asteroid (162173) Ryugu: Stereo-photogrammetric analysis using images of the ONC onboard the Hayabusa2 spacecraft 2019A&A...632L...4P
    Episodes of particle ejection from the surface of the active asteroid (101955) Bennu 2019Sci...366.3544L
    The last pieces of the primitive inner belt puzzle: Klio, Chaldaea, Chimaera, and Svea 2019A&A...630A.141M
    The Changing Rotational Light-curve Amplitude of Varuna and Evidence for a Close-in Satellite 2019ApJ...883L..21F
    Distribution and spectrophotometric classification of basaltic asteroids 2020MNRAS.491.5966M
    Near-infrared spectroscopy of the Klio primitive inner-belt asteroid family 2020Icar..33513427A
    Mega-Archive and the EURONEAR tools for data mining world astronomical images 2020A&C....3000356V
    A Reverse Shock in GRB 181201A 2019ApJ...884..121L
    Interstellar Visitors: A Physical Characterization of Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) with OSIRIS at the 10.4 m GTC 2019RNAAS...3..131D
    Multivariable statistical analysis of spectrophotometry and spectra of (162173) Ryugu as observed by JAXA Hayabusa2 mission 2019A&A...629A..13B
    Compositional characterization of V-type candidate asteroids identified using the MOVIS catalogue 2019MNRAS.488.3866M
    Near-Earth asteroids spectroscopic survey at Isaac Newton Telescope 2019A&A...627A.124P
    Asteroid pairs: A complex picture 2019Icar..333..429P
    V404 CYG/GS 2023+338: Monitoring in the Optical with Robotic Telescopes of the MASTER Global Network during the 2015 Superburst 2019ARep...63..534L
    QSO2 outflow characterization using data obtained with OSIRIS at the Gran Telescopio Canarias 2019A&A...626A..89B
    Physical characterization of 2009 WN25: exploring the link with November i-Draconids meteor shower 2019MNRAS.487.2335I
    Spectroscopic and dynamical properties of comet C/2018 F4, likely a true average former member of the Oort cloud 2019A&A...625A.133L
    Lower atmosphere and pressure evolution on Pluto from ground-based stellar occultations, 1988-2016 2019A&A...625A..42M
    Ultra-violet imaging of the night-time earth by EUSO-Balloon towards space-based ultra-high energy cosmic ray observations 2019APh...111...54A
    Physical properties of PHA 2014 JO25 from a worldwide observational campaign 2019MNRAS.483.4820A
    Dust properties of double-tailed active asteroid (6478) Gault 2019A&A...624L..14M
    Properties of rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-REx imaging and thermal analysis 2019NatAs...3..341D
    MuSCAT2: four-color simultaneous camera for the 1.52-m Telescopio Carlos Sánchez 2019JATIS...5a5001N
    Spectral clustering tools applied to Ceres in preparation for OSIRIS-REx color imaging of asteroid (101955) Bennu 2019Icar..328...69R
    Hungaria asteroid region telescopic spectral survey (HARTSS) II: Spectral homogeneity among Hungaria family asteroids 2019Icar..322..227L
    J-PLUS: The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey 2019A&A...622A.176C
    The Diverse Population of Small Bodies of the Solar System 2018haex.bookE..55D
    The visible and near-infrared spectra of asteroids in cometary orbits 2018A&A...618A.170L
    The Castalia mission to Main Belt Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro 2018AdSpR..62.1947S
    CASTAway: An asteroid main belt tour and survey 2018AdSpR..62.1998B

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