Observing Near-Earth Objects with the James Webb Space Telescope

Cristina A. Thomas, Paul Abell, Julie Castillo-Rogez, Nicholas Moskovitz, Michael Mueller, Vishnu Reddy, Andrew Rivkin, Erin Ryan, John Stansberry
(Submitted on 19 Oct 2015)

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has the potential to enhance our understanding of near-Earth objects (NEOs). We present results of investigations into the observability of NEOs given the nominal observing requirements of JWST on elongation (85-135 degrees) and non-sidereal rates (<30mas/s). We find that approximately 75% of NEOs can be observed in a given year. However, observers will need to wait for appropriate observing windows. We find that JWST can easily execute photometric observations of meter-sized NEOs which will enhance our understanding of the small NEO population.

Comments: This paper is one of a series for a special issue on Solar System observations with JWST in PASP. Accepted 10/02/15. Preprint 22 pages, 4 figures
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1510.05637 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1510.05637v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Cristina Thomas
[v1] Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:55:46 GMT (345kb)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.05637