1

S. A. SternS. A. Stern11, D. D. Durda, D. D. Durda1,21,2, A. Steffl, A. Steffl22, D. , D. HasslerHassler22, and N. Cunningham, and N. Cunningham33

11NASA Headquarters, NASA Headquarters, 22SwRI, SwRI, 33U. NebraskaU. Nebraska

S. A. SternS. A. Stern11, D. D. Durda, D. D. Durda1,21,2, A. Steffl, A. Steffl22, D. , D. HasslerHassler22, and N. Cunningham, and N. Cunningham33

11NASA Headquarters, NASA Headquarters, 22SwRI, SwRI, 33U. NebraskaU. Nebraska

Presentation 50.04Presentation 50.04Presentation 50.04Presentation 50.04

New Constraints from STEREO on the Population of Vulcanoids

Interior to Mercury

New Constraints from STEREO on the Population of Vulcanoids

Interior to Mercury

2

The Vulcanoid Population

•Intrinsically interesting new class of objectsIntrinsically interesting new class of objects•Sample of condensed material from the early inner solar Sample of condensed material from the early inner solar

systemsystem•Relevance to Mercury’s cratering record and chronologyRelevance to Mercury’s cratering record and chronology

• Left over planetesimals; high-temperature end of condensation sequenceLeft over planetesimals; high-temperature end of condensation sequence• Debris from giant impact that might have stripped away Mercury’s rocky mantleDebris from giant impact that might have stripped away Mercury’s rocky mantle

•EvaporationEvaporation•P-R drag, Yarkovsky EffectP-R drag, Yarkovsky Effect•CollisionsCollisions•Gravitational perturbationsGravitational perturbations

Origin/sources of Vulcanoid material:Origin/sources of Vulcanoid material:

Removal/loss of Vulcanoid material:Removal/loss of Vulcanoid material:

~4-12° solar elongation

3

Previous Searches

Ground-basedGround-based

• Perrine (1902, 1906, 1909)Perrine (1902, 1906, 1909)• Campbell and Trumpler (1923)Campbell and Trumpler (1923)• Courten et al. (1976a,b)Courten et al. (1976a,b)• Leake Leake et al.et al. (1987) (1987)• Campins et al. (1996)Campins et al. (1996)

High-Altitude AirborneHigh-Altitude Airborne

• Durda and Stern (2001-2002)Durda and Stern (2001-2002)

Spacecraft (SOHO)Spacecraft (SOHO)

• Durda et al. (2000) Durda et al. (2000) Most constraining previous search: Most constraining previous search: No No Vulcanoids brighter than V = 8.5Vulcanoids brighter than V = 8.5

• Schumacher and Gay (2001)Schumacher and Gay (2001)

4

Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory

The Heliospheric Imager (HI) instrument aboard the NASA STEREO spacecraft, launched on 25 October 25 2006, provides a new and sensitive opportunity to explore the inner heliosphere from the Sun’s inner corona and the region of space near the Sun.

HI-1 Instrument

• Vulcanoid zone lies fully within HI-1 field of view

• Ability to observe faint stellar sources (~40 times more sensitive than previous search with SOHO)

• 0.6 arcmin pixels• Parallax due to spacecraft orbital motion

moves Vulcanoids ~2.5 arcsec/min relative to background stars

STEREO

5

HI Image Processing

Remove “hot” pixels:• Top three pixels discarded from each image

set• Calculate median of remaining pixel values• Subtract resulting median image from

individual images to remove fixed pattern noise

Remove background gradient:• At each pixel location calculate average of all

pixel values in circular aperture between 5 and 12 pixels from central point

• Subtract resulting image from individual images to remove gradient

Co-register and ‘blink’:• Use 10 stars common to all images in

animation sequence as registration fiducials• Determine rotation, offset, and scaling

necessary to align individual images with reference image

6

HI Image Processing

Remove “hot” pixels:• Top three pixels discarded from each image

set• Calculate median of remaining pixel values• Subtract resulting median image from

individual images to remove fixed pattern noise

Remove background gradient:• At each pixel location calculate average of all

pixel values in circular aperture between 5 and 12 pixels from central point

• Subtract resulting image from individual images to remove gradient

Co-register and ‘blink’:• Use 10 stars common to all images in

animation sequence as registration fiducials• Determine rotation, offset, and scaling

necessary to align individual images with reference image

7

Search Results

stereo_a_hi1_feb7.mov

8

Search Results

We examined five 48-hour sequences of images, spaced about 10 days apart (24 processed HI-1 images per sequence).

Moving were objects located through visual examination of the five movie sequences and identified using commercial astronomical software and search tools on the MPC web site.

Main-belt asteroids as faint as V 13.5 identified. Objects “discovered” during the search:

• Planets (Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Neptune)• Asteroids (1 Ceres, 10 Hygiea, 29 Amphitrite, 241 Germania, 349 Dembowska, 385 Ilmatar,

444 Gyptis, 660 Crescentia, 678 Fredegundis)• Comet (C/2006 M4 SWAN)

Average magnitude limit across search field: V 12.5. Assuming a Mercury-like albedo and phase function, this translates to D 6km Vulcanoids.

No Vulcanoids found.

9

Extras