Adaptive Optics Studies of Asteroids

Jack Drummond

Only a handful of asteroids have been visited by spacecraft, providing us with exquisite views. For Earth bound observers, however, until the advent of adaptive optics (AO), all asteroids have been but points of lights, smaller in appearance than the seeing disk. Now AO on larger (8-10 meter) telescopes have started to reveal these whirling fragments as small worlds in their own right. I will discuss my AO observations on these large telescopes and compare the images to models developed from light curves. Movies will be shown.