Overview
This project studies the physical properties of small bodies in the Solar System, from the "icy" ones (trans -Neptunian objects, Centaurs and comets) to the near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). With special interest we study primitive asteroids, including comet-asteroid transitional objects such as the "Main Belt Comets" (MBCs), and the NEAs. We lead the PRIMASS (PRIMitive Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey) and the EURONEAR cooperation.
Among the physical properties we study the surface composition and thermal properties. We use spectroscopy in a wide range of wavelengths (from 0.35 to 24 microns), image and photometry in the same range. We interpret the data using scattering and thermophysical models. We also work in the study of the physical properties of cometary nuclei and the properties of the dust and gas in cometary comae, especially in those of MBCs .
We maintain several international collaborations, e.g.: (1) we are part of the Science Group of the NASA mission OSIRIS-REx and we are part of the Image Processing Working Group, where we will work on the processing of the color maps produced by OCAMS cameras; (2) we are members of the core team of the ESA M5 proposals CASTALIA, CASTAway and MarcoPolo-M5 ; (3) we coordinate an international group to study NEAs called EURONEAR (European Near Earth Asteroid Research); (4) we are part of the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS, NASA); (5) we are part of the EUCLID mission Solar System group; (6) we are parte of the J-PLUs and J-PASS surveys, working on the exploitation of the observations of Solar System objects.
We work on a technology project related to space: the development of electronics for a thermal detector, a 640x480 microbolometer array that we aim will be the detector of the thermal camera for the future ESA and NASA missions to Solar System objetcts, in particular the AIM and the M5 proposals indicated above.