Institut national de recherche scientifique français Univerité Pierre et Marie Curie Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7

Observing asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects with MICADO/MORFEO and HARMONI

mardi 19 mars 2024, par Sylvain Douté (IPAG) and Audrey Delsanti (LAM)

Lundi 25 mars 2024 à 16h00 , Lieu : Salle de confĂ©rence du bâtiment 17

The “Extremely Large Telescope” (ELT), currently built by ESO in Chile, will be decisive for unprecedented observations of asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects, and Centaurs as it will offer very high spatial resolution and sensitivity. The MICADO and HARMONI instruments in particular will allow in-depth studies of rocky and icy dwarf planets. They will also bring constrains on the physical properties (size, shape, rotation, density, mass, internal structure) of hundreds of asteroids and about twenty TNOs by imaging and high precision astrometry. Their composition will be mapped by narrowband imaging and integral field spectroscopy. MICADO will be served by MORFEO, a multi-conjugate adaptive optics with several laser stars and several deformable mirrors. The use of MORFEO will be crucial to observe faint and sometimes fast objects against the sky with the best possible resolution. Members of the MORFEO and HARMONI teams, we aim at carrying out the scientific preparation of the instrument by (i) defining strategies for performing the observations of the minor bodies of the Solar System (ii) simulating images and spectra with a complete set of numerical tools and laboratory reflectance data. We will present this approach and the expected performances after a brief description of the MICADO/MORFEO instruments.