Constraining near-Earth object albedos using near-infrared spectroscopy

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2004.11.005 Byline: A.S. Rivkin (a), R.P. Binzel (a), S.J. Bus (b) Abstract: Low-albedo near-Earth objects (NEOs) are warm enough to emit detectable thermal flux at 2.5 [mu]m when near perihelion. Thermal radiation can account for 33% or more of the total flux for an object with an albedo a[c]1/20.04 at 1.0 AU. This is measurable using near-infrared spectroscopic instruments enabling albedos to be constrained for a larger sample of NEOs. Author Affiliation: (a) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02139, USA (b) Institute for Astronomy, 640 N. A'ohoku Place #209, Hilo, HI 96720, USA