Reflectance Spectroscopy of Asteroids

Recommended Prerequisites

Students should have basic knowledge on integral and differential calculus, electromagnetism, and computation.

Teaching Methods

Learning contents are presented and discussed in lecture classes (2 hours/week). In problem solving classes (1.5 hours/week), students are expected to solve proposed problems. Weekly problem sets will be provided covering all relevant subjects.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

- Understand the principles of light propagation, reflection and absorption in solid and particulate media.

- Use Mie´s theory to compute light scattering by perfect spheres or irregularly shaped particles.

- Use Hapke’s theory to analyse bidirectional reflectance spectra of mineral assemblages.

- Estimate asteroid albedos from reflectance spectra.

- Understand reflectance spectroscopy measurement methods and instrumentation.

- Access reflectance spectral data of mineral assemblages, meteorites and asteroids from publicly available spectral databases.

- Analyse reflectance spectra using Hapke’s theory to estimate the corresponding mineralogy.

- Apply the Modified Gaussian Model to retrieve information on absorption band’s parameters.

- Simulate the effects of particle size and space weathering on asteroidal spectra.

- Understand the reflectance taxonomy of asteroids.

- Understand the links between asteroids and meteorites.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Electromagnetic waves

- Propagation in different media

- Absorption in material media

- Specular reflection

- Diffuse reflection

2. Single-particle scattering

- Mie’s theory

- The equivalent slab approximation 

- Extrapolation of Mie’s theory for irregularly shaped particles

- Empirical scattering functions

3. Radiative transfer in particulate media

- Hapke’s radiative transfer theory

- Bidirectional reflectance models

4. Planetary photometry

- Albedos

- Photometric function

5. Reflectance mixing models

- Areal mixtures

- Intimate mixtures

6. Reflectance spectroscopy

- Measurement methods and instrumentation

- Determination of albedo and phase function

- Determination of mineral composition of intimate mixtures

- Effects of particle size

- Space-weathering effects

- Modified Gauss method

7. Asteroid and meteorite reflectance spectra

- Reflectance taxonomies of asteroids

- Asteroid-meteorite links

Head Lecturer(s)

Teresa Monteiro Seixas

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 40.0%
Project: 60.0%

Bibliography

1. Theory of Reflectance and Emittance Spectroscopy (2nd ed.), B. Hapke, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

2. Asteroids II (Space Science Series), Edited by R. Binzel, T, Gehrels, and M. Matthews, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1989.

3. Asteroids III (Space Science Series), Edited by W. Bottke, A. Cellino, P. Paolicchi, and P. Binzel, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2002.

4. Asteroids IV (Space Science Series), Edited by P. Michel, F. E. DeMeo, and W. Bottke, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2015.

5. Articles on reflectance spectroscopy of mineral assemblages, meteorites and asteroids.