Pan-STARRS and Catalina: Tracking down Near Earth Objects

[Rick]

Killer asteroid hunter takes first snaps

The first of four powerful telescopes which will eventually be capable of locating 99 per cent of potentially-threatening near-Earth objects (NEOs) bigger than 300 metres has captured its first test images, New Scientist reports.

The Hawaii-based PS1 telescope - part of the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) project, and seen here atop Hawaii's Haleakala volcano - packs a 1.8 metre mirror, and although it's currently kitted out with a small test camera, this will be upgraded to a 300 megapixel device in September and subsequently to a 1.4bn pixel beast in March 2007.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/28/ps1_is_go/

[Rick]

Hunt for space rocks intensifies

The discovery of six comets made 2008 a truly stellar year for Italian astronomer Andrea Boattini.

He spends solitary nights keeping vigil on the heavens at Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona - looking for cosmic debris hurtling through the inner Solar System.

Two telescopes in Arizona and one in Australia are conducting the Catalina Sky Survey - part of a Nasa project to find and track near-Earth objects (NEOs).

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7824002.stm

[Rick]

USAF raygun boffins clocking planet-buster asteroid threats

US airforce raygun boffins have awarded a further $7m in funding to a project which detects and tracks asteroids which could hit Earth and kill us all.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/15/usaf_asteroid_watch/

[Tony G]

A new telescope facility in Hawaii designed to search for asteroids and comets which could threaten Earth has been made operational.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10340488.stm

Tony G

PS......................Look, a sensible post.

[RobertM]

"The giant digital camera will take over 500 exposures each night, collecting about four terabytes of data (equivalent to what 1,000 DVDs can hold). "

[mickw]

The PS1 is just a prototype for a 4 mirror system (PS4) planned for Mauna Kea.

Early "shake down" images and more info...........................

http://pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/public/home.html

[PhilB]

I'm not sure we could stop such rock even if we knew it was coming, begging the question, "Do you really want to know?". Ignorance is bliss and all that...

But the technology being employed here is impressive.

[mickw]

Oh dear, Oh dear

If a massive asteroid is hurtling toward Earth and threatening to sterilize the entire planet, blasting it to pieces with nuclear bombs might seem fit for a Hollywood movie. But, it could, in fact, be a viable solution to the potentially apocalyptic event, according to scientists who have studied asteroids and possible solutions to prevent Earth impacts.

There are some strings attached: The interloping space rock would have to pose a definite asteroid threat to Earth in a relatively short timeframe to justify such a drastic option, the scientists said. And blowing up an asteroid runs the risk of creating more debris to worry about later, they added.

More:    Goodbye everyone

[Rick]

A Strange Lonely Planet Found without a Star

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago—a newborn in planet lifetimes.

It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, Maui. Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawaii show that it has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO J318.5-22 is all by itself, without a host star.

"We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone," explained team leader Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do."

More: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/LonelyPlanet/

[Rick]

Hubble astronomers observe bizarre six-tailed asteroid

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a unique and baffling object in the asteroid belt that looks like a rotating lawn sprinkler or badminton shuttlecock. While this object is on an asteroid-like orbit, it looks like a comet, and is sending out tails of dust into space.

Normal asteroids appear as tiny points of light. But this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, has six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like the spokes on a wheel. It was first spotted in August of this year as an unusually fuzzy-looking object by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.

Because nothing like this has ever been seen before, astronomers are scratching their heads to find an adequate explanation for its mysterious appearance.

More: http://spacetelescope.org/news/heic1320/
More: http://hubblesite.org/news/2013/52

[Rick]

Small Asteroid Is Earth's Constant Companion

A small asteroid has been discovered in an orbit around the sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth, and it will remain so for centuries to come.

As it orbits the sun, this new asteroid, designated 2016 HO3, appears to circle around Earth as well. It is too distant to be considered a true satellite of our planet, but it is the best and most stable example to date of a near-Earth companion, or "quasi-satellite."

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6537

[Rick]

Catalog of Known Near-Earth Asteroids Tops 15,000

The number of discovered near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) now tops 15,000, with an average of 30 new discoveries added each week. This milestone marks a 50 percent increase in the number of known NEAs since 2013, when discoveries reached 10,000 in August of that year.

Surveys funded by NASA's Near Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program (NEOs include both asteroids and comets) account for more than 95 percent of discoveries so far.

The 15,000th near-Earth asteroid is designated 2016 TB57. It was discovered on Oct. 13 by observers at the Mount Lemmon Survey, an element of the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona. 2016 TB57 is a rather small asteroid -- about 50 to 115 feet (16 to 36 meters) in size -- that will come closest to Earth on Oct. 31 at just beyond five times the distance of the moon. It will safely pass Earth.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6664