No Arabic abstract
We determine the absolute magnitude (H) distribution (or size-frequency distribution, SFD; $N(H) propto 10^{alpha H}$ where $alpha$ is the slope of the distribution) for near-Earth objects (NEO) with $13<H<30$ and Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM) targets with $27<H<31$ that were detected by the 1st telescope of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System - Pan-STARRS1 (e.g. Kaiser et al. 2002, Kaiser 2004, Hodapp et al. 2004). The NEO and ARM target detection efficiencies were calculated using the Greenstreet et al. (2012) NEO orbit distribution. The debiased Pan-STARRS1 NEO absolute magnitude distribution is more complex than a single slope power law - it shows two transitions - at H$sim$16 from steep to shallow slope, and in the $21<H<23$ interval from a shallow to steep slope, which is consistent with other recent works (e.g. Mainzer et al. 2011c, Brown et al. 2013, Harris and D`Abramo 2015). We fit $alpha = 0.48pm0.02$ for NEOs with $13<H<16$, $alpha = 0.33pm0.01$ for NEOs with $16<H<22$, and $alpha = 0.62pm0.03$ for the smaller objects with $H>22$. There is also another change in slope from steep to shallow around H=27. The three ARM target candidates detected by Pan-STARRS1 in one year of surveying have a corrected SFD with slope $alpha = 0.40^{+0.33}_{-0.45}$. We also show that the window for follow up observations of small (H$gtrsim$22) NEOs with the NASA IRTF telescope and Arecibo and Goldstone radars are extremely short - on order of days, and procedures for fast response must be implemented in order to measure physical characteristics of small Earth-approaching objects. CFHTs MegaCam and Pan-STARRS1 have longer observing windows and are capable of following-up more NEOs due to their deeper limiting magnitudes and wider fields of view.
We introduce a new technique to estimate the comet nuclear size frequency distribution (SFD) that combines a cometary activity model with a survey simulation and apply it to 150 long period comets (LPC) detected by the Pan-STARRS1 near-Earth object survey. The debiased LPC size-frequency distribution is in agreement with previous estimates for large comets with nuclear diameter $>sim 1$~km but we measure a significant drop in the SFD slope for small objects with diameters $<1$~km and approaching only $100$~m diameter. Large objects have a slope $alpha_{big} = 0.72 pm 0.09 (stat.) pm 0.15 (sys.)$ while small objects behave as $alpha_{small} = 0.07 pm 0.03 (stat.) pm 0.09 (sys.)$ where the SFD is $propto 10^{alpha H_N}$ and $H_N$ represents the cometary nuclear absolute magnitude. The total number of LPCs that are $>1$~km diameter and have perihelia $q<10$~au is $0.46 pm 0.15 times 10^9$ while there are only $2.4 pm 0.5 (stat.) pm 2 (sys.) times 10^9$ objects with diameters $>100$~m due to the shallow slope of the SFD for diameters $<1$~m. We estimate that the total number of `potentially active objects with diameters $ge 1$~km in the Oort cloud, objects that would be defined as LPCs if their perihelia evolved to $<10$~au, is $(1.5pm1)times10^{12}$ with a combined mass of $1.3pm0.9 , M_{Earth}$. The debiased LPC orbit distribution is broadly in agreement with expectations from contemporary dynamical models but there are discrepancies that could point towards a future ability to disentangle the relative importance of stellar perturbations and galactic tides in producing the LPC population.
Centaurs are small bodies orbiting in the giant planet region which were scattered inwards from their source populations beyond Neptune. Some members of the population display comet-like activity during their transition through the solar system, the source of which is not well understood. The range of heliocentric distances where the active Centaurs have been observed, and their median lifetime in the region suggest this activity is neither driven by water-ice sublimation, nor entirely by super-volatiles. Here we present an observational and thermo-dynamical study of 13 Centaurs discovered in the Pan-STARRS1 detection database aimed at identifying and characterizing active objects beyond the orbit of Jupiter. We find no evidence of activity associated with any of our targets at the time of their observations with the Gemini North telescope in 2017 and 2018, or in archival data from 2013 to 2019. Upper limits on the possible volatile and dust production rates from our targets are 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than production rates in some known comets, and are in agreement with values measured for other inactive Centaurs. Our numerical integrations show that the orbits of six of our targets evolved interior to r$sim$15 AU over the past 100,000 years where several possible processes could trigger sublimation and outgassing, but their apparent inactivity indicates their dust production is either below our detection limit or that the objects are dormant. Only one Centaur in our sample -- 2014 PQ$_{70}$ experienced a sudden decrease in semi-major axis and perihelion distance attributed to the onset of activity for some previously known inactive Centaurs, and therefore is a likely candidate for future outburst. This object should be a target of interest for further observational monitoring.
Context. A lot of photometric data is produced by surveys such as Pan-STARRS, LONEOS, WISE or Catalina. These data are a rich source of information about the physical properties of asteroids. There are several possible approaches for utilizing these data. Lightcurve inversion is a typical method that works with individual asteroids. Our approach in this paper is statistical when we focused on large groups of asteroids like dynamical families and taxonomic classes, and the data were not sufficient for individual models. Aims. Our aim was to study the distributions of shape elongation $b/a$ and the spin axis latitude $beta$ for various subpopulations of asteroids and to compare our results, based on Pan-STARRS1 survey, with statistics previously done using different photometric data (Lowell database, WISE data). Methods. We use the LEADER algorithm to compare the $b/a$ and $beta$ distributions for different subpopulations of asteroids. The algorithm creates a cumulative distributive function (CDF) of observed brightness variations, and computes the $b/a$ and $beta$ distributions using analytical basis functions that yield the observed CDF. A variant of LEADER is used to solve the joint distributions for synthetic populations to test the validity of the method. Results. When comparing distributions of shape elongation for groups of asteroids with different diameters $D$, we found that there are no differences for $D < 25$ km. We also constructed distributions for asteroids with different rotation periods and revealed that the fastest rotators with $P = 0 - 4$ h are more spheroidal than the population with $P = 4 - 8$ h.
Pan-STARRS1 has carried out a set of distinct synoptic imaging sky surveys including the $3pi$ Steradian Survey and the Medium Deep Survey in 5 bands ($grizy_{P1}$). The mean 5$sigma$ point source limiting sensitivities in the stacked 3$pi$ Steradian Survey in $grizy_{P1}$ are (23.3, 23.2, 23.1, 22.3, 21.4) respectively. The upper bound on the systematic uncertainty in the photometric calibration across the sky is 7-12 millimag depending on the bandpass. The systematic uncertainty of the astrometric calibration using the Gaia frame comes from a comparison of the results with Gaia: the standard deviation of the mean and median residuals ($ Delta ra, Delta dec $) are (2.3, 1.7) milliarcsec, and (3.1, 4.8) milliarcsec respectively. The Pan-STARRS system and the design of the PS1 surveys are described and an overview of the resulting image and catalog data products and their basic characteristics are described together with a summary of important results. The images, reduced data products, and derived data products from the Pan-STARRS1 surveys are available to the community from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at STScI.
The Pan-STARRS1 survey is collecting multi-epoch, multi-color observations of the sky north of declination -30 deg to unprecedented depths. These data are being photometrically and astrometrically calibrated and will serve as a reference for many other purposes. In this paper we present our determination of the Pan-STARRS photometric system: gp1, rp1, ip1, zp1, yp1, and wp1. The Pan-STARRS photometric system is fundamentally based on the HST Calspec spectrophotometric observations, which in turn are fundamentally based on models of white dwarf atmospheres. We define the Pan-STARRS magnitude system, and describe in detail our measurement of the system passbands, including both the instrumental sensitivity and atmospheric transmission functions. Byproducts, including transformations to other photometric systems, galactic extinction, and stellar locus are also provided. We close with a discussion of remaining systematic errors.