[meteorite-list] Planetary Society Calls for New Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grant Proposals

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jul 26 20:52:39 2006
Message-ID: <200607270050.RAA26706_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://planetary.org/about/press/releases/2006/0726_Attention_Astronomers_Heres_Your.html

NEWS RELEASE

The Planetary Society
65 N. Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 (626) 793-5100 Fax
(626) 793-5528
E-mail: tps_at_planetary.org Web: http://planetary.org

For Immediate Release: July 26, 2006
Contact: Susan Lendroth
 
Attention Astronomers: Here's Your Chance to Save the World!
The Planetary Society Calls for New Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object
Grant Proposals

"Cataclysmic impacts are a fact of life in our solar system," said
Planetary Society Director of Projects Bruce Betts. "Asteroids or
comets have hit the Earth many times in our past, but now we have
the ability to find and track near-Earth objects (NEOs) to determine
which - if any - pose a threat."

To that end, The Planetary Society has issued a new call for
proposals for Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grants, which the
organization awards to amateur observers, observers in developing
countries, and professional astronomers who, with seed funding, can
greatly increase their programs' contributions to NEO research. See
grant details on the website at
http://planetary.org/programs/projects/neo_grants/.

NEOs have collided with Earth throughout the planet's history,
violently releasing enormous amounts of energy. Many scientists
believe an impact off the north coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, the threat posed
by objects hurtling through our solar system is not a relic of the
past. Just 11 years ago, Earth watched the bombardment of another
planet when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted Jupiter. More recently -
 a mere month ago - a several-hundred-meter asteroid passed by Earth
at about the distance of the Moon. And in 2029, the asteroid
Apophis, a few hundred meters in diameter, will come closer to Earth
than our geosynchronous communications satellites and has the
possibility of colliding with our planet when it returns in 2036.

The Planetary Society named its NEO Grant program for Gene Shoemaker
after his death in 1997. Shoemaker was a highly respected leader
in the study of impact structures and an advocate for NEO discovery
and tracking programs.

Past Shoemaker grant winners have been highly productive in NEO
studies. A 2005 grant recipient, David Higgins, discovered that
asteroid (6084) Bascom is a binary. In an interesting coincidence
Bascom was originally discovered by Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker in
1985. "Small world!" remarked Higgins, who was one of five
researchers to receive a Shoemaker grant from the Society in 2005.

Higgins, of Canberra, Australia, used his funding to purchase a SBIG
CCD camera with a large pixel array and extremely short readout
time -- the same camera with which he determined that Bascom was, in
fact, a binary asteroid.

Grant recipients have also discovered many previously unknown
asteroids, including John Broughton's April 11, 2004 discovery of
2004 GA1. This is possibly the first amateur discovery of a
potentially hazardous NEO exceeding one kilometer in diameter.
Updates on the accomplishments of past winners can be found at
http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/neo_grants/updates.html.

Since The Planetary Society's inception in 1980, the organization
has donated well over a quarter million dollars to asteroid
research, about half of which was awarded through 22 Shoemaker NEO
grants to observers around the world. Society-funded programs have
yielded several asteroid discoveries. Shoemaker NEO grant money has
been used for everything from upgrading equipment to purchasing CCD
cameras to paying the salaries of graduate students involved in
observing programs.

Grant winners are especially critical in the NEO world for carefully
measuring positions of recently discovered NEOs. Once we know a NEO
is out there, we need to learn whether or not it will hit Earth.

For example, Peter Birtwhistle of Berkshire, England used his 2005
grant to upgrade equipment at Great Shefford Observatory, allowing
much faster image downloads. Since then, he has published NEO
follow-up observations in more than 100 Daily Orbit Updates and has
tracked a number of fast-moving NEOs, including three objects that
were closer to Earth than the Moon.

Funding for the Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant program comes from The
Planetary Society's members, whose voluntary dues and donations
permit targeted support of research and development programs in a
number of areas.

Nearly 70% of the estimated total number of one-kilometer or larger
objects that cross Earth's orbit have been discovered. Government
support for searches and follow-up programs remains modest so
programs like The Planetary Society's Gene Shoemaker NEO grants fill
a vital niche.

As our understanding of the impact threat has grown, we have begun
to consider in more detail how we might prevent the impact of a
threatening object. Advance planning requires that we better
understand the properties of these objects as miniature worlds, so
observations that help characterize NEOs are now a growing focus of
the grant program.

An international advisory group recommends candidates to receive the
grant awards. The advisory group includes Planetary Society NEO
Grant Coordinator Daniel D. Durda of the Southwest Research
Institute.


-o0o-
Received on Wed 26 Jul 2006 08:50:03 PM PDT