Scaling Near Earth Asteroid ( NEA ) characterization rates

Millions of asteroids orbit the Sun in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter (Petit et al., 2002). Some have scattered within Mars’ orbit through entering orbital resonances with Mars or Jupiter, and so are de0ned as NEAs (Greenstreet & Gladman, 2012). 1ey range in diameter, D, from dust grains to the largest known NEA, Ganymed, with D=31.7km, (MPC data) following a power law slope with regards to the number of NEAs by size distribution. 1e recent unexpected impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia, as well as the 2yby of 2012 DA14 has brought public attention to an area of astrophysics that some scientists have been trying to highlight for decades. 1is preliminary report aims to show the progress so far in creating an improved strategy for 0nding and characterizing a larger proportion of the NEA population as quickly as possible. I will 0rst highlight four key motivations for improved discovery rates along with the importance of spectroscopy as a means of composition characterization. Key contributors towards NEA discovery will then be discussed, followed by a brief look at programs planned for the future. Detailed aims are then stated followed by an explanation of the computational methods used. Graphical and numerical results are then presented followed by a discussion of 0ndings. I conclude with a summary of the preliminary report and a discussion of future work that will complete the project.