Taking the Temperature of Solar System Airless Bodies : Insights from the NASA’s LRO and OSIRIS-REx missions

Séminaire IPAG de Kerri Donaldson Hanna (Oxford), jeudi 16 mai 2019 à 11h00, salle Manuel Forestini

Thermal infrared observations of Solar System bodies provide key insights into the physical and compositional properties of their surfaces. Thermal physical properties include surface temperatures, regolith and rock properties, and thermal inertia. Thermal infrared spectral measurements can be used to identify compositional units on planetary surfaces as rocks and minerals have diagnostic features across this wavelength region. In this talk, I will provide an overview of current spacecraft observations of the Moon (NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ; LRO) and asteroids (NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith-Explorer ; OSIRIS-REx) and what these observations tell us about Solar System airless bodies. In addition I will discuss how laboratory spectral measurements across the thermal infrared spectral region are necessary for the interpretation of current and future thermal infrared observations of Solar System airless bodies.