Closing the gap between Earth-based and interplanetary mission observations: Vesta seen by VLT/SPHERE

Romain Jl. Fétick (1) , Laurent Jorda (1) , Pierre Vernazza (1) , Michael Marsset (2) , Alexis Drouard (3) , Thierry Fusco (1, 4) , Benoît Carry (5) , Franck Marchis (6) , Josef Hanuš (7) , Matti Viikinkoski (8) , Mirel Birlan (9) , Przemyslław Bartczak (10) , J. Berthier (11, 9) , Julie Castillo-Rogez (12) , Fabrice Cipriani (13) , François Colas (9) , Grzegorz Dudziński (10) , Christophe Dumas , Marin Ferrais (14) , Emmanuël Jehin (15) , M. Kaasalainen (16) , Agnieszka Kryszczynska (17) , Philippe Lamy (1) , Hervé Le Coroller (18) , Anna Marciniak (19) , Tadeusz Michalowski (10) , Patrick Michel (5) , Laurent M. Mugnier (4) , Benoît Neichel (1, 20) , Myriam Pajuelo (9, 21) , Edyta Podlewska-Gaca (10, 22) , Toni Santana-Ros (17) , Paolo Tanga (5) , Frédéric Vachier (9) , Arthur Vigan (1) , Oliver Witasse (13) , Bin Yang (23)

1 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
2 ARC - Astrophysics Research Centre [Belfast]
3 DAPNIA - Département d'Astrophysique, de physique des Particules, de physique Nucléaire et de l'Instrumentation Associée
4 DOTA, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay (COmUE) [Châtillon]
5 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE
6 Fundació Privada Observatori Esteve Duran
7 UK - Univerzita Karlova [Praha, Česká republika] = Charles University [Prague, Czech Republic]
8 TUT - Tampere University of Technology [Tampere]
9 IMCCE - Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides
10 UAM - Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu = Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
11 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
12 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
13 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
14 Université de Liège
15 Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège]
16 Department of Mathematics [Tampere]
17 Astronomical Observatory [Poznan]
18 OHP - Observatoire de Haute-Provence
19 AMGen - Applied Molecular Genetics
20 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation
21 PUCP - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú = Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
22 University of Szczecin
23 ESO - European Southern Observatory [Santiago]

Context. Over the past decades, several interplanetary missions have studied small bodies in situ, leading to major advances in our understanding of their geological and geophysical properties. These missions, however, have had a limited number of targets. Among them, the NASA Dawn mission has characterised in detail the topography and albedo variegation across the surface of asteroid (4) Vesta down to a spatial resolution of 20 m pixel-1 scale. Aims: Here our aim was to determine how much topographic and albedo information can be retrieved from the ground with VLT/SPHERE in the case of Vesta, having a former space mission (Dawn) providing us with the ground truth that can be used as a benchmark. Methods: We observed Vesta with VLT/SPHERE/ZIMPOL as part of our ESO large programme (ID 199.C-0074) at six different epochs, and deconvolved the collected images with a parametric point spread function (PSF). We then compared our images with synthetic views of Vesta generated from the 3D shape model of the Dawn mission, on which we projected Vesta's albedo information. Results: We show that the deconvolution of the VLT/SPHERE images with a parametric PSF allows the retrieval of the main topographic and albedo features present across the surface of Vesta down to a spatial resolution of 20-30 km. Contour extraction shows an accuracy of 1 pixel (3.6 mas). The present study provides the very first quantitative estimate of the accuracy of ground-based adaptive-optics imaging observations of asteroid surfaces. Conclusions: In the case of Vesta, the upcoming generation of 30-40 m telescopes (ELT, TMT, GMT) should in principle be able to resolve all of the main features present across its surface, including the troughs and the north-south crater dichotomy, provided that they operate at the diffraction limit. Reduced images of Table A.1 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/623/A6Based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the Paranal Observatory under programme ID 199.C-0074 (PI: P. Vernazza).

Mots clés: techniques: image processing; asteroids: individual: Vesta; techniques: high angular resolution; methods: observational; minor planets

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]; Physique [physics]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Romain Jl. Fétick, Laurent Jorda, Pierre Vernazza, Michael Marsset, Alexis Drouard, et al.. Closing the gap between Earth-based and interplanetary mission observations: Vesta seen by VLT/SPHERE. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2019, 623, pp.A6. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201834749⟩. ⟨hal-02118093⟩