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| Paper: |
Asteroid Polarimetry: Current Activities and Recent Results |
| Volume: |
449, Astronomical Polarimetry 2008: Science from Small to Large Telescopes |
| Page: |
358 |
| Authors: |
Cellino, A.; Belskaya, I. N.; Delb‘o, M.; Levasseur-Regourd, A.; Muinonen, K.; Tedesco, E. F. |
| Abstract: |
Polarimetry is a very useful tool for asteroid studies because it
makes it possible to get information on some important physical
parameters, like geometric albedo, which are intimately related to
surface composition and regolith structure. In recent years there
has been a strongly renewed interest in the field of asteroid
polarimetry, due to new theoretical and observational results. Some
new discoveries have been done, including a few objects exhibiting
fairly exotic polarimetric properties, that had not been observed
previously. Moreover, it is now largely agreed that polarimetry is
the best available technique to derive reliable and fairly accurate
estimates of the albedo of small near-Earth objects. On the other
hand, some problems are present and deserve a careful attention,
including primarily the need of converging towards a unique and
improved calibration of the albedo - linear polarization relation.
The above subjects are briefly discussed, and some kind of “road
map" for further developments is sketched. |
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