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Latest Computers Will Boost Asteroid Tracking Efforts

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE 
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
 
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                               May 20, 1998
 
LATEST COMPUTERS WILL BOOST ASTEROID TRACKING EFFORTS
 
     NASA astronomers conducting a monthly sweep of the night sky 
to identify previously unknown asteroids and comets will be able 
to double their coverage and the number of discoveries they make, 
thanks to new, state-of-the-art computer and data analysis 
hardware. 
 
     The new equipment was purchased with funds from NASA, which 
recently doubled its resources for near-Earth object research.  
 
     The new real-time analysis system, which serves a fully 
automated charged-couple device (CCD) camera and telescope atop 
Mt. Haleakala, Maui, HI, is part of the Near-Earth Asteroid 
Tracking (NEAT) project, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.  The new system features four 300-
megahertz processors that will be devoted solely to the enormous 
amount of data coming back from the NEAT telescope on a nightly 
basis.         
 
     "This new system will speed up the processing of data and 
allow us to analyze up to 40 gigabytes of data each night, or the 
equivalent of nearly 70 CD-ROMs," said Dr. Steven Pravdo, NEAT 
project manager at JPL.  "We will be able to double the amount of 
sky we search each night, which is currently 500 square degrees, 
as well as the number of new asteroids and comets we find during 
each monthly observation cycle."    
     
     Installed in 1995, the NEAT camera uses a very large, very 
sensitive 4,096- by 4,096-pixel CCD chip.  The camera is located 
on a 1-meter-diameter (39-inch) telescope operated by the U.S. 
Air Force and located at an elevation of 3,000 meters (nearly 2 
miles) above the Pacific Ocean. With stable climate, clear, dry 
air and little light pollution, the NEAT tracking system has been 
highly successful and continues to operate six days out of each 
month.  With additional support, the project hopes to increase 
this six-day observational run to 18 nights of observations each 
month.  
 
     Asteroids are considered relics of the formation of the 
early solar system.  Most of them are rocky materials, with some 
composed of nickel and iron. Most range in size from boulders up 
to the largest main belt asteroid, Ceres, which is approximately 
965 kilometers (600 miles) in diameter.  Comets, on the other 
hand, are bodies of ice with embedded rock and organic materials 
which heat up and become active, spewing gases and dust as they 
approach the Sun.  
 
     The NEAT telescope detects these small bodies by observing 
the same part of the sky three times during an interval of about 
one hour and comparing the three images to determine the location 
of objects moving across the sky.  Since its inception, this 
fully automated system has detected more than 25,000 objects, 
including 30 near-Earth asteroids, two long-period comets and the 
unique 1996 PW, which has the most eccentric orbit of all objects 
discovered to date.  More information about NEAT discoveries, 
along with black-and-white images of the objects, is available at 
http://huey.jpl.nasa.gov/~spravdo/neat.html .    
 
     Most recently, the NEAT team has discovered two new Earth-
crossing asteroids. One, designated 1998 HT31, is a relatively 
small Apollo-type asteroid 270 meters (800 feet) in diameter; the 
other, 1998HD14, is the 30th Aten to be discovered since JPL 
astronomer Eleanor Helin first identified this class of asteroid 
22 years ago, and the fifth discovered with the NEAT tracking 
system.  Both are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids 
because their orbits come within 5 million kilometers (3 million 
miles) of Earth, or about 20 times the distance of the Moon.  
However, neither currently poses a threat to Earth. 
  
     "Atens are a rare class of asteroid because of their small 
orbits, which are smaller than that of Earth's, and which never 
allow them to wander far from our planet," said Helin, who is the 
principal investigator of the NEAT program.  "1998 HD14 passed 
within 5 million kilometers (3 million miles of Earth) just a 
week after we discovered it on April 29.  This is relatively 
close but poses no threat in the foreseeable future.  Atens are 
of particular interest to us because they stay so close to 
Earth's orbit."
 
     Along with near-Earth asteroids, astronomers are also 
interested in tracking long-period comets, which travel vast 
distances from the Oort Cloud, a region far beyond Pluto's orbit, 
which is believed to house trillions of incipient comets. These 
objects travel in very long paths through the solar system, and 
can appear unannounced, with no calling cards.  
 
     "We are particularly interested in these comets because they 
give us little time before appearing in Earth's vicinity," Helin 
said.  
 
     Astronomers dedicated to discovering and tracking near-Earth 
objects are eager to find all of the potentially dangerous 
asteroids and comets long before they are likely to approach 
Earth.  For instance, the NEAT team at JPL is developing two new 
CCD cameras and hopes to install them at Mt. Haleakala or other 
facilities.    
 
     "With additional telescopes, longer observational runs and 
our new operating system, we will be able to detect 90 percent of 
the Earth-crossing asteroids that are larger than 1 kilometer 
(6/10ths of a mile) in diameter in the next 10 years," Pravdo 
said.  "As our knowledge about these objects grows, we will be 
able to provide better information which can be used in studies 
of ways to divert Earth-crossers on threatening orbits toward 
Earth."
 
     NEAT was built and is being managed by the Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. 
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in 
Pasadena, CA. 
 
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