[meteorite-list] Tracking Asteroids in New Mexico

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:22:22 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200703291622.l2TGMMb01126_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.dchieftain.com/news/70146-03-28-07.html

Tracking asteroids
Argen Duncan
El Defensor Chieftain (New Mexico)
March 28, 2007

Magdalena Ridge Observatory may join the search

NASA doesn't have the money to locate all of the asteroids that could
collide with and cause devastating damage to Earth by its initial
deadline, but two Socorro-area observatories could help with the hunt.

Earlier this month, NASA announced it doesn't have the $1 billion for
its plan to find 90 percent of the 20,000 potentially hazardous
asteroids and comets by 2020, according to an article by Associated
Press writer Seth Borenstein. Secondary options with different prices
were also rejected.

However, New Mexico Tech astrophysicist Eileen Ryan is hoping the
Magdalena Ridge Observatory will join the search. Also, two telescopes
at the White Sands Missile Range's Stallion Range Center, which is
located east of San Antonio, N.M., have tracked near-earth asteroids
since 1998.

Astrophysicist Jennifer Evans of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's
Lincoln Laboratories said the telescopes the labs operate at the
Stallion Range have been used to find 1,800 of the more than 4,000
near-earth asteroids. NASA is funding the work.

The main asteroid belt has another 200,000 of the objects.

Not all asteroids are potentially hazardous. An object that is about
half a mile across could have catastrophic global effects if it hit
Earth, while something approximately 300 feet across or less could have
a regional impact.

"We've been the dominant telescope site doing this (asteroid tracking),
but there are other sites and other sites going online," said Roger
Sudbury of Lincoln Labs

Sudbury said currently, astrophysicists only use the data for predicting
possible danger and not preventing collisions.

"We don't have the capability to do anything right now," he said.

Lincoln Labs telescopes take digital photographs, which show objects as
white dots. The images go to Harvard's Smithsonian Minor Planet
Institute, where scientists determine which asteroids might cross
Earth's orbit.

The telescopes must scan large areas rapidly and return their view to
the same place regularly to detect whether objects are moving.

"It has to come back to the particular spot in the sky every, oh, 20
minutes," Sudbury said.

Evans said the telescopes' range depends on the size of the objects.

The devices can see around Pluto if operators work hard, but don't show
much beyond Jupiter. Evans said the closest they look is 26,000 miles
from Earth.

Evans said about eight employees work on the Stallion site telescopes
regularly, with some dividing their time among multiple projects.

Another two dozen people help occasionally or support the scientific
efforts.

A couple of people work with the project part time from Massachusetts,
Evans said.

On Tech's part, Ryan said researchers at the Magdalena Ridge
Observatory, 30 miles west of Socorro, believe they can contribute to
the search for potentially dangerous asteroids because telescopes half
the size of their 2.4-meter device typically do the work.

Now, the Magdalena Ridge Observatory has NASA funding to look at
main-belt asteroids. Researchers have been using a telescope in Arizona,
but Ryan hopes to move operations to the local observatory and expand
them to include near-earth asteroids.

She plans to submit a proposal for the work in May and expects to learn
whether it will receive funding by the end of the year.

Ryan said NASA needs more resources to fulfill Congress' directives to
find 90 percent of asteroids 1 kilometer across, as well as smaller objects.

The Magdalena Ridge Observatory is the biggest telescope that could
focus on the project, and it's already built.

"And so we exist as a facility all ready to go," Ryan said.

If the observatory got the job, she said, it would gather information
about sightings of other facilities.

Some telescopes can't interrupt the cadence of their sky mapping to look
closely at an object.

However, if no one follows up immediately, scientists might not collect
good orbit data or the asteroid might not return.

"It might be lost permanently," Ryan said of the information.

Ryan said Tech astronomers would normally use a charge-coupled device,
like what a digital camera uses, to see asteroids.

Ryan said scientists want to learn not only which asteroids might hit
earth, but also what compositions and internal structures they have.

That information would allow people to decide whether to try to avoid a
collision by diverting or blowing up the asteroids.
 
Received on Thu 29 Mar 2007 12:22:22 PM PDT