SolAR SYSTEM Minor bodies

Details. The myriads of small bodies in our solar system are leftovers of the building blocks that accreted to form planets and can therefore provide crucial insights on the conditions found 4.5 Gyr ago in the protoplanetary disk around the Sun. Visible-light observations with SHARK-VIS will naturally provide sharper images than those currently obtainable with near-infrared AO-assisted instruments. With a maximum angular resolution around 15 mas, SHARK-VIS can attain spatial resolutions of about 35, 55, 110, and 220 km for objects at distances of 3, 5, 10, and 20 au, respectively, so that it will be able to spatially resolve not only many asteroids of the main belt, but also the largest objects in the outer Solar System. For asteroids, SHARK-VIS will directly measure the size of the targets (hence their volume) and will spot possible satellites, which can be used to derive a refined estimate of their mass. This will provide an accurate estimate of their density, which is key to understand the asteroid inner structure and composition. The size determination provided by SHARK-VIS is a crucial measurement in this regard, as errors in volume usually dominate asteroid density estimates. In addition, SHARK-VIS has the potential to obtain the first spatially resolved images of the largest Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) in the outer Solar System, providing images sharper than those acquired by HST. Direct imaging in different bands and the related color analysis can effectively probe for the first time these remote targets, providing insights on their surface heterogeneity, which is a fundamental piece of information to understand their nature and formation, and on the presence of possible satellites. Suitable TNO targets are dwarf planets Makemake (~1500 km at ~50 au), Haumea (~2000 km at ~50 au), and Quaoar (~1100 km at about 40 au).