Planetary scientists at the University of Helsinki develop methods for, for example, forward and inverse light scattering, X-ray fluorescence, interpretation of radar experiments, thermophysical modelling, and celestial mechanics for accruing knowledge on individual objects as well as entire populations of asteroids and comets. They devise simulations for large-scale ground-based and space-based surveys of different populations of small bodies, such as near-Earth objects and main-belt asteroids.
We collaborate with or participate in a number of investigation teams for space missions, such as ESA’s Hera and RAMSES missions as well as NASA’s DART mission (planetary defence to mitigate the collision threat posed by near-Earth asteroids), ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission (pristine comet), ESA’s and JAXA’s BepiColombo mission (Mercury), NASA’s LRO mission (the Moon), ESA’s NEOMIR mission for planetary defence, NASA’s DSCOVR mission (the Earth and the near-Earth space), and JAXA’s DESTINY+ mission (near-Earth asteroids and interplanetary and interstellar dust).
Astrometric, photometric, spectroscopic, and polarimetric observations of individual high-priority targets are obtained with the 2.5-m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), the SoXS instrument at the 3.6-m ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT), and the 8.2-m ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). We also use observations from ground-based sky surveys, in particular Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and space-based surveys, most importantly European Space Agency’s Gaia and Euclid missions, for population-level studies of small bodies in the Solar System.
Planetary defence comprises close European collaboration with the Planetary Defence Office of ESA’s Space Safety Programme (ESA S2P) and close global collaboration as described above, underscoring the global significance of planetary defence for a sustainable planet Earth, one of the spearheads of the University of Helsinki.
The Astrophysics Scattering Laboratory consists of a state-of-the-art levitator-driven scatterometer, UV-Vis-NIR spectrometers, and a polarimetric spectrogoniometer. The development of a backscatterometer based on hyperspectral imaging is ongoing. In laboratory, we study the scattering properties of meteorites and analogue materials to various planetary surfaces.
Astrophysics laboratory telescopes include, for example, the 60-cm telescope at the Metsähovi Observatory of the University of Helsinki.