Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309493986
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 75

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Book Description
Near Earth objects (NEOs) have the potential to cause significant damage on Earth. In December 2018, an asteroid exploded in the upper atmosphere over the Bering Sea (western Pacific Ocean) with the explosive force of nearly 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. While the frequency of NEO impacts rises in inverse proportion to their sizes, it is still critical to monitor NEO activity in order to prepare defenses for these rare but dangerous threats. Currently, NASA funds a network of ground-based telescopes and a single, soon-to-expire space-based asset to detect and track large asteroids that could cause major damage if they struck Earth. This asset is crucial to NEO tracking as thermal-infrared detection and tracking of asteroids can only be accomplished on a space-based platform. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes explores the advantages and disadvantages of infrared (IR) technology and visible wavelength observations of NEOs. This report reviews the techniques that could be used to obtain NEO sizes from an infrared spectrum and delineate the associated errors in determining the size. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques and recommends the most valid techniques that give reproducible results with quantifiable errors.

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309493986
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 75

Get Book Here

Book Description
Near Earth objects (NEOs) have the potential to cause significant damage on Earth. In December 2018, an asteroid exploded in the upper atmosphere over the Bering Sea (western Pacific Ocean) with the explosive force of nearly 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. While the frequency of NEO impacts rises in inverse proportion to their sizes, it is still critical to monitor NEO activity in order to prepare defenses for these rare but dangerous threats. Currently, NASA funds a network of ground-based telescopes and a single, soon-to-expire space-based asset to detect and track large asteroids that could cause major damage if they struck Earth. This asset is crucial to NEO tracking as thermal-infrared detection and tracking of asteroids can only be accomplished on a space-based platform. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes explores the advantages and disadvantages of infrared (IR) technology and visible wavelength observations of NEOs. This report reviews the techniques that could be used to obtain NEO sizes from an infrared spectrum and delineate the associated errors in determining the size. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques and recommends the most valid techniques that give reproducible results with quantifiable errors.

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). Committee on Near Earth Object Observations in the Infrared and Visible Wavelengths
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780309493994
Category : Asteroids
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
"Near Earth objects (NEOs) have the potential to cause significant damage on Earth. In December 2018, an asteroid exploded in the upper atmosphere over the Bering Sea (western Pacific Ocean) with the explosive force of nearly 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. While the frequency of NEO impacts rises in inverse proportion to their sizes, it is still critical to monitor NEO activity in order to prepare defenses for these rare but dangerous threats. Currently, NASA funds a network of ground-based telescopes and a single, soon-to-expire space-based asset to detect and track large asteroids that could cause major damage if they struck Earth. This asset is crucial to NEO tracking as thermal-infrared detection and tracking of asteroids can only be accomplished on a space-based platform. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes explores the advantages and disadvantages of infrared (IR) technology and visible wavelength observations of NEOs. This report reviews the techniques that could be used to obtain NEO sizes from an infrared spectrum and delineate the associated errors in determining the size. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques and recommends the most valid techniques that give reproducible results with quantifiable errors"--Publisher's description

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030949401X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 75

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Book Description
Near Earth objects (NEOs) have the potential to cause significant damage on Earth. In December 2018, an asteroid exploded in the upper atmosphere over the Bering Sea (western Pacific Ocean) with the explosive force of nearly 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. While the frequency of NEO impacts rises in inverse proportion to their sizes, it is still critical to monitor NEO activity in order to prepare defenses for these rare but dangerous threats. Currently, NASA funds a network of ground-based telescopes and a single, soon-to-expire space-based asset to detect and track large asteroids that could cause major damage if they struck Earth. This asset is crucial to NEO tracking as thermal-infrared detection and tracking of asteroids can only be accomplished on a space-based platform. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes explores the advantages and disadvantages of infrared (IR) technology and visible wavelength observations of NEOs. This report reviews the techniques that could be used to obtain NEO sizes from an infrared spectrum and delineate the associated errors in determining the size. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques and recommends the most valid techniques that give reproducible results with quantifiable errors.

Legal Aspects of Planetary Defence

Legal Aspects of Planetary Defence PDF Author: Irmgard Marboe
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004467602
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
Impacts by asteroids or comets on Earth may lead to natural disasters of catastrophic dimensions. This book addresses legal and policy aspects of ‘planetary defence’ activities by space agencies and other actors aiming at the prediction and mitigation of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology PDF Author: Muriel Gargaud
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3662650932
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 3376

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Book Description
Now in its third edition the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology serves as the key to a common understanding in the extremely interdisciplinary community of astrobiologists. Each new or experienced researcher and graduate student in adjacent fields of astrobiology will appreciate this reference work in the quest to understand the big picture. The carefully selected group of active researchers contributing to this work are aiming to give a comprehensive international perspective on and to accelerate the interdisciplinary advance of astrobiology. The interdisciplinary field of astrobiology constitutes a joint arena where provocative discoveries are coalescing concerning, e.g. the prevalence of exoplanets, the diversity and hardiness of life, and its chances for emergence. Biologists, astrophysicists, (bio)-chemists, geoscientists and space scientists share this exciting mission of revealing the origin and commonality of life in the Universe. With its overview articles and its definitions the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology not only provides a common language and understanding for the members of the different disciplines but also serves for educating a new generation of young astrobiologists who are no longer separated by the jargon of individual scientific disciplines. This new edition offers ~170 new entries. More than half of the existing entries were updated, expanded or supplemented with figures supporting the understanding of the text. Especially in the fields of astrochemistry and terrestrial extremophiles but also in exoplanets and space sciences in general there is a huge body of new results that have been taken into account in this new edition. Because the entries in the Encyclopedia are in alphabetical order without regard for scientific field, this edition includes a section “Astrobiology by Discipline” which lists the entries by scientific field and subfield. This should be particularly helpful to those enquiring about astrobiology, as it illustrates the broad and detailed nature of the field.

Asteroid Hunters

Asteroid Hunters PDF Author: Carrie Nugent
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501120085
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
One of the top scientists in the field of asteroid hunting explains how, for the first time, humanity could have the knowledge to prevent a devastating asteroid impact. --

Near-infrared (2-4 Micron) Spectroscopy of Near-earth Asteroids

Near-infrared (2-4 Micron) Spectroscopy of Near-earth Asteroids PDF Author: Nathanael Richard Wigton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are not expected to have H2O [water] ice on their surfaces because a) most accreted dry and therefore never contained H2O, and b) their relatively high surface temperatures should drive rapid H2O ice sublimation. However, OH/H2O has been detected on other anhydrous inner solar system objects, including the Moon and Vesta. Possible sources for OH/H2O in the inner Solar System might include production via solar wind interactions, carbonaceous chondrite or cometary impact delivery, or native OH/H2O molecules bound to phyllosilicates. As these processes are active in near-Earth space, detectable levels of OH/H2O might also be present on NEAs. OH/H2O can be detected by its absorption feature at wavelengths near 3 microns using near-infrared (2 - 4 microns) spectroscopy from ground-based infrared telescopes. Analysis of the shape of the 3-micron feature, coupled with the observed NEA orbital parameters and albedos, can help distinguish between the possible sources of OH/H2O. I used the SpeX instrument on NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) to measure spectra in from ~2 to 4 [mu]m[microns]. The study presented here uses 13 observations for 8 NEAs: (443) Eros (two observations), (1036) Ganymed (four observations), (3122) Florence, (54789) 2001 MZ7, (96590) 1998 XB, (285944) 2001 RZ11, (214088) 2004 JN13, (357439) 2004 BL86. The objects are split into two spectral groups based on band depth: No feature or shallow feature (

Handbook of Cosmic Hazards and Planetary Defense

Handbook of Cosmic Hazards and Planetary Defense PDF Author: Joseph N. Pelton
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783319039510
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Covers in a comprehensive fashion all aspects of cosmic hazards and possible strategies for contending with these threats through a comprehensive planetary defense strategy. This handbook brings together in a single reference work a rich blend of information about the various types of cosmic threats that are posed to human civilization by asteroids, comets, bolides, meteors, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, cosmic radiation and other types of threats that are only recently beginning to be understood and studied, such as investigation of the “cracks” in the protective shield provided by the Van Allen belts and the geomagnetosphere, of matter-antimatter collisions, orbital debris and radiological or biological contamination. Some areas that are addressed involve areas about which there is a good deal of information that has been collected for many decades by multiple space missions run by many different space agencies, observatories and scientific researchers. Other areas involving research and studies that have only recently gotten underway are discussed by some of the world’s foremost experts in each of these areas, who provide up-to-date and scientifically verifiable information. Although much of the work in these various areas have been conducted by space agencies, an expanding range of work is also being carried out by observatories, by universities and other research centers, and even by private foundations and professional organizations. The purpose of this work is thus several-fold: to include the latest information and most systematic research from around the world in a single reference work; to note where there are significant gaps in knowledge where new research, spacecraft, observatories, or other initiatives are needed to fill in critical missing information; and to give the best possible information about preventative actions that might be taken against cosmic threats and identify various alternative strategies that are now under way or planned to cope with these various threats.

Defending Planet Earth

Defending Planet Earth PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309149681
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
The United States spends approximately $4 million each year searching for near-Earth objects (NEOs). The objective is to detect those that may collide with Earth. The majority of this funding supports the operation of several observatories that scan the sky searching for NEOs. This, however, is insufficient in detecting the majority of NEOs that may present a tangible threat to humanity. A significantly smaller amount of funding supports ways to protect the Earth from such a potential collision or "mitigation." In 2005, a Congressional mandate called for NASA to detect 90 percent of NEOs with diameters of 140 meters of greater by 2020. Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies identifies the need for detection of objects as small as 30 to 50 meters as these can be highly destructive. The book explores four main types of mitigation including civil defense, "slow push" or "pull" methods, kinetic impactors and nuclear explosions. It also asserts that responding effectively to hazards posed by NEOs requires national and international cooperation. Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies is a useful guide for scientists, astronomers, policy makers and engineers.

Mysteries of Meteors, Asteroids, and Comets

Mysteries of Meteors, Asteroids, and Comets PDF Author: Ellen Labrecque
Publisher:
ISBN: 1496681703
Category : Asteroids
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
"What are asteroids, comets, and meteors made of? What can scientists do if an asteroid is headed toward Earth? Learn how astronomers prepare for space objects hitting Earth, from tracking them to building asteroid-hunting telescopes. Budding astronomers will learn all about meteors, asteroids, and comets, including the history of asteroids hitting Earth and the differences between space rocks"--