A few weeks ago a new Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) was discovered. Don't make any plans after 2042 because... well who knows? It's not immense, maybe a thousand feet in diameter. That's big enough.
I am fascinated when asteroids and comets are discovered because so often the discoveries don't come directly from NASA or observatories associated with research universities. "2009 BD81," the asteroid that's keeping me from making reservations for Bruce Springsteen's planned 2042 Florida condo tour (sponsored by Maalox and Levitra), was discovered by Robert Holmes from the Astronomical Research Institute. As far as I can tell Robert Holmes. pretty much is the ARI!
What makes this Charleston, Illinois installation Gearlog-worthy is its use of home made one-of-a-kind telescopes and volunteer student assistance to turn night sky imagery into scientific discovery. Without the Astronomical Research Institute there wouldn't be any asteroids named after Arcola High School. Now there are three.
The Mattoon Journal-Gazette quotes senior Justin Pullen: "I think it's pretty cool, finding an asteroid, naming it after ourselves." Indeed it is.
Asteroids and comets are relatively easy to spot against a field of stars when multiple images are sequenced. Though the star field will remain reasonably motionless and each star in sync with one another, sporadic objects will move through the frame. Holmes' gear has found over 250 of these space interlopers.
Right now the big gun is a 32" telescope which can resolve to an amazing magnitude 22.12 in a five minute exposure. Each order of magnitude decreases an object's light by approximately 2.5 times so we're talking amazing sensitivity and stability. The analogy the Mattoon paper used was, it could see a "half inch marble at 100 miles." A larger 48" scope is in the works.
Yes, there is NASA money that goes into this little observatory, but this is small money... closer to rounding errors when compared to NASA's big projects. And yet the science yielded from this rural town in the Midwest is pretty spectacular.
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February 11, 2009 10:19 AM
Hi,
Congratulations on the discovery and thank you for the effort!
I have some questions that will hopefully be answered in time by study.
How much of the orbital arc has been calculated based upon observations vs projections? What is the orbital ratio to us? Are you confident this is not a 'rediscovered' body? Is the albeto so high Hubble can't image it this close? What does the spectroscopic scan say it could be made of, thus the possible density?
This is not a sales pitch, just a possible chance to help you: I'm a Charter Member of The planetary Society. Any agreement you and they come up with is between you two. TPS is science based work. TPS is not a fun and games only society for all age ranges.
Have you considered talking with The Planetary Society (626-793-5100), Pasadena, Ca. about possibly putting this into 'The Planetary Report' since it appears to be really significant? Editor: Charlene M. Anderson. www.planetary.org for more information on The Planetary Society.
February 11, 2009 2:49 PM
Bob -
As I understand it, all the ARI work is properly published and vetted through the traditional channels.
Since last night this webpage has been added which might answer more of your questions: http://ari.home.mchsi.com/pha_neo_db81.htm