The Compilation of Spitzer-observed Near-Earth Objects.
Near Earth Objects (NEOs) are small Solar System bodies whose
orbits bring them close to the Earth's orbit. NEOs lie at the
intersection of Solar System evolution science, space exploration,
and civil defense. They are compositional and dynamical tracers
from elsewhere in the Solar System; the study of NEOs allows us to
probe environmental conditions throughout the Solar System and the
history of our planetary system, and provides a template for
analyzing the evolution of planetary disks around other
stars. NEOs are the parent bodies of meteorites, one of our key
sources of detailed knowledge about the Solar System's
development, and NEO studies are the essential context for this
work. The space exploration of NEOs is primarily carried out
through robotic spacecraft (NEAR, Hayabusa, Chang'e 2, Hayabusa-2,
OSIRIS-REx). Energetically, some NEOs are easier to reach with
spacecraft than the Earth's moon, and NEOs offer countless targets
with a range of physical properties and histories. Finally, NEOs
are a civil defense matter: the impact threat from NEOs is real,
as demonstrated in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February,
2013. Understanding the number and properties of NEOs affects our
planning strategies, international cooperation, and overall risk
NEOs typically have daytime temperatures around 250 K. Hence,
their thermal emission at 4.5 μm is almost always significantly
larger than their reflected light. We can therefore employ a
thermal model to derive NEO diameters and albedos. This makes the
Spitzer Space Telescope the most powerful NEO characterization
telescope ever built, reaching 3σ sensitivities of ~1.5
μJy in 10,000 seconds, and able to observe thousands of NEOs.
Explore the Latest Results
This website compiles Spitzer IRAC observations of Near-Earth
Objects from three large-scale surveys in one database. Reduced
data products are available in the form of flux measurements, as
well as thermal modeling results in the form of diameter and
albedo estimates. Explore the latest results:
Please note that all diameters and albedos presented here
have been derived with the methodology presented
et al. (2016).
Spitzer NEO Programs
The Spitzer NEOs database contains a compilation flux measurements and derived NEO parameters from the following programs carried out during the Spitzer Warm mission.
ExploreNEOs is a Spitzer Cycle 6 Exploration Science program which was carried out between 2009 July and 2011 November. It was composed of a total of 599 AORs and obtained
observations in both the 3.6 and 4.5 μm bands. All observations and modeling are complete and in the database. The Spitzer program IDs are 60012, 61010,
61011, 61012, and 61013. The project is described in Trilling et al. 2010.
NEOSurvey (Program ID 11002) is a Spitzer Cycle 11 Exploration Science program which was carried out between 2015 February to 2016 September. It was composed of a total of 570 AORs and obtained
observations in the 4.5 μm band. All observations and modeling are complete and in the database. The project is described in Trilling et al. 2016.
NEOLegacy (Program ID 13006) is a Spitzer Cycle 13 Frontier Legacy Science program which was begun in 2016 October and is still executing. As of 2018 March, a total of 714 AORs have executed and are in the database. IRAC photometry is obtained at 4.5 μm. Observations are scheduled through 2018 September.