Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T05:35:16.514Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Asteroid Polarimetry: A Progress Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

J. Veverka
J. Veverka*
Affiliation:
Cornell University

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This is a brief report on the present status of asteroid polarimetry. A detailed paper is in preparation jointly with T. Gehrels.

The first polarization measurements of asteroids were made by Lyot (1934), who photographically determined the polarization curves of Ceres and Vesta. These curves are reproduced by Dollfus (1961). Unfortunately, because of the low sensitivity of the photographic method, they do not agree very well with recent photoelectric measurements.

The first photoelectric polarization measurements of asteroids were made by Provin (1955) (details of this work are given by Dollfus, 1961), and in recent years this work has been extended by Gehrels (unpublished) and by Veverka (1970). To date, fairly complete polarization curves for about a dozen asteroids have been obtained, and at least partial data are available for twice that number.

Type
Part I-Observations
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 12: Physical Studies of Minor Planets , 1971 , pp. 91 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1971

References

Dollfus, A. 1961, Polarization Studies of Planets. Planets and Satellites (eds., Kuiper, G.P. and Middlehurst, B.M.), ch. 9. Univ. of Chicago Press. Chicago.Google Scholar
Dunlap, J.L., and Gehrels, T. 1969, Minor Planets. III. Lightcurves of a Trojan Asteroid. Astron. J. 74, 796.Google Scholar
Gehrels, T. 1970, Photometry of Asteroids. Surfaces and Interiors of Planets and Satellites (ed., Dollfus, ), ch. 6. Academic Press, Inc. New York.Google Scholar
Gehrels, T., Roemer, E., Taylor, R.C., and Zellner, B.H. 1970, Minor Planets and Related Objects. IV. Asteroid (1566) Icarus. Astron. J. 75, 186.Google Scholar
Gehrels, T., and Teska, T.M. 1963, The Wavelength Dependence of Polarization. Appl. Opt. 2, 67.Google Scholar
KenKnight, C.E., Rosenberg, D.L., and Wehner, G.K. 1967, Parameters of the Optical Properties of the Lunar Surface Powder in Relation to Solar Wind Bombardment. J. Geophys. Res. 72, 3105.Google Scholar
Lyot, B. 1929, Studies of the Polarization of Planets. NASA TTF-187.Google Scholar
Lyot, B. 1934, Polarisation des Petites Planetes. Bull. Astron. 67, 3.Google Scholar
McCord, T.B., Adams, J.B., and Johnson, T.V. 1970, Asteroid Vesta: Spectral Reflectivity and Compositional Implications. Science 168, 1445.Google Scholar
Provin, S. 1955, Preliminary Observations of the Polarization of Asteroids (abstract). Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 67, 115.Google Scholar
Veverka, J. 1970, Photometric and Polarimetrie Studies of Minor Planets and Satellites. Ph. D. Thesis. Harvard Univ.Google Scholar
Veverka, J. 1971 a, The Polarization Curve and the Absolute Diameter of Vesta. Icarus 15, 11.Google Scholar
Veverka, J. 1971 b, Photopolarimetric Observations of the Minor Planet Flora. Icarus 15(3), in press.Google Scholar
Widom, T. 1967, A Photometric Method of Estimating the Diameters of Minor Planets. Ann. Univ. Sternwarte Wien 27, 112.Google Scholar