Colloquium
Near-Earth Asteroids at Close Approach: From Sub-minute Rotators to Future Spatially Resolved Target
Abstract
Asteroids preserve key records of the Solar System’s history, providing insights into collisional and surface evolution as well as the origins of water and life on Earth. Among them, Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs), with perihelion distances smaller than 1.3 au, represent a unique population that enables detailed investigations of the secular evolution of their orbits and spin states. They are also crucial targets for future spacecraft exploration, planetary defense, and potential space resource utilization. In this talk, I will introduce recent observational studies of NEAs conducted during close approaches to Earth within a few lunar distances, where otherwise impossible observations become feasible. These include simultaneous tricolor video photometry of sub-minute rotators, as well as archival-data studies of an asteroid that will soon approach Earth closely enough to become a spatially resolved target.
About the talk
Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur
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About the speaker
Jin Beniyama is a postdoctoral researcher at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (OCA) in Nice, France. His research focuses on observational and thermal studies of asteroids, with a particular emphasis on near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). His work includes photometry and polarimetry of NEAs during close approaches and investigations of asteroid thermal properties using thermophysical modeling (TPM). He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Tokyo in 2024. His recent work combines high-time-resolution observations, and thermal studies to better understand the physical properties and evolution of NEAs.