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Blog Archive
WISE bags its first near-Earth object, 2010 AB78
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/22 04:14 CST
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) just took its lens cap off on December 29, and posted its "first light" image on January 6. Now, just two weeks later, WISE has bagged its first near-Earth object.
ESA mission analyst suggests 2010 AL30 might be Venus Express rocket
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/13 10:30 CST
2010 AL30 zipped past us harmlessly about five hours ago. Because of its one-year orbital period, many people speculated it might be a manmade object, but 2010 AL30 might, in fact, be artificial.
Goldstone detects "STRONG" radar echoes from 2010 AL30
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/12 10:05 CST
Radio scientist Lance Benner posted to the Minor Planets Mailing list this evening the following message: "We have detected STRONG radar echoes from 2010 AL30 at Goldstone."
2010 AL30: Watch out for low-flying asteroids
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/12 11:52 CST
In less than 24 hours, a newly discovered asteroid known as 2010 AL30 will be zipping past Earth at an altitude of approximately a third the Earth-Moon distance. There's no chance it'll hit us, but it's generating a lot of excitement in the community of amateur and professional near-Earth asteroid observers.
Near Earth Objects and Planetary Defense
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/26 08:52 CST
Triple asteroid 1994 CC rotation animation
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/08/06 10:39 CDT
From the "just plain cool" department. I love animations of planetary images and I love radar images of asteroids -- so this animation is doubly cool.
Updates on the 2007 Shoemaker NEO Grant Recipients
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2009/04/27 12:00 CDT
Our 2007 Shoemaker NEO Grant winners have been extremely busy over the past two years. Take for example Quanzhi Ye of Guangzhou, China: He was only 18 when he received the award but already the principal investigator of the sky survey at the Lulin Observatory in Taiwan.
Updates on the 2007 Shoemaker NEO Grant Recipients
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2008/06/27 12:00 CDT
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2007/03/01 11:00 CST
Update as of March 4, 2007 Thanks to The Planetary Society Shoemaker Grant, the 1.06-meter KLENOT telescope optics was completed at the Klet Observatory. Regular observations of the KLENOT project started in March 2002 under the new IAU/MPC code 246, so we can now present results covering 5 years of this work.
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2006/07/18 12:00 CDT
Update as of July 13, 2006 Using the Shoemaker NEO Grant funds, Minor Planet Research has purchased a 1.7-terabyte data server for our Asteroid Discovery Station (ADS) education outreach program Through the generosity of Dr. Philip Christensen, this server is housed at the Mars Space Flight Facility (MSFF) at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2005/08/17 12:00 CDT
Update as of July 28, 2005 Following last year's Potentially Hazardous Asteroid and a few other non-main-belt discoveries, I looked into what improvements I could make to more efficiently image the sky. The major advance involved the design of a 3-lens corrector comprising 2 stock lenses and a custom lens I made myself.
Astronomers Revise Torino Scale Asteroid Advisory System
Posted by A.J.S. Rayl on 2005/04/20 03:25 CDT
Astronomers have revised the Torino scale, the color-coded advisory system to assess the threat of asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) to make it easier for the public to understand.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2004/09/29 12:00 CDT
This morning, asteroid 4179 Toutatis was so close to Earth that simultaneous observations from two telescopes in the same country could show parallax that is obvious even to the least experienced observer. The two telescopes belong to The European Southern Observatory and are located at La Silla and Paranal in Chile
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2004/04/16 12:00 CDT
Update as of March 24, 2004 2003 was a good year with 50,779 asteroid astrometric observations submitted, including known NEOs and the discovery of a new Aten-class object, 2003 UY12. Based upon the volume of astrometric observations submitted, observatory code 683 was the world's eighth most productive asteroid astrometry station.
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2001/03/20 11:00 CST
Update as of March 20, 2001 I just wanted to express my appreciation again to The Planetary Society for the Shoemaker Grant. Apogee Instruments delivered the AP6Ep purchased with the grant on 9 March 2001. Critical mass on all of the other components associated with implementing the proposal was reached last week.
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