Planetary Astronomy: Recent Advances and Future Discoveries With Small Aperture Telescopes

Abstract

Scientific study of the various bodies in our Solar System has been advanced in recent years with new technologies such as adaptive optics, tunable and variable filters and high-resolution infrared detectors. Small aperture telescopes (< 4-m diameter) provide many of the scientific advances and new discoveries in planetary science by allowing the temporal coverage necessary to obtain longitudinal, diurnal and seasonal sampling on a planet. Numerous studies of small bodies in our solar system, the atmospheres and surfaces of the terrestrial planets, the atmospheres of the giant planets and their large satellites, and even the atmospheres of extra-solar planets and brown dwarfs, have been completed with data from such telescopes and instruments. Although an orbiting spacecraft or in situ probe can offer intense study of a small region on a planetary body, they often lack the global view of a planet obtained by Earth-based telescopes. Modest-sized telescopes on Earth can provide self-consistent, global-scale measurements of solar system objects that are unique and complementary to spacecraft exploration. Continuing advances in infrared and filter technology, as well as adaptive optics, will enable new studies that provide answers to fundamental questions about our own Solar System and about extra-solar planets as well.