Groundbased investigation of asteroid 9969 Braille, target of the spacecraft mission Deep Space 1

Asteroid 9969 Braille (1992 KD) was encountered on July 29, 1999 by the Dee p Space 1 mission, the first of NASA's New Millennium Program, launched on October 24 1998. The data obtained by the space mission seem to indicate a composition of the object similar to that of Vesta. To complete the informa tion obtained in the infrared region by the Deep Space 1 mission we have pe rformed a visible spectroscopic and photometric investigation of the astero id respectively with the 1.5 m telescope and the NTT of ESO, La Silla. The spectrum was obtained in the spectral range 4500-8200 Angstrom and, for the photometry, BVRI filters were used. In this paper we report the results of the analysis of the data obtained indicating that, on the basis of our vis ible data, the composition of the asteroid may range from V-type to Q-type, but we observe also a strong similarity to the H-type ordinary chondrites.