Date: May 2, 2012
Title: OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroids Campaign
Podcaster: Peter Lake
Organization: AARTScope Blog
Links: http://aartscope.blogspot.com
http://youtube.com/n6UJ6p3Vq4E
Description: Last week, 16th April 2012, NASA Goddard Space Center and the University of Arizona announced that the next new-frontiers mission would be to Asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36. They have called for Amateur Astronomers to play a leading role in the mission preparation. Peter Lake and Amateur astronomer from Melbourne Australia discusses how you can be involved and reviews what was said in the press release.
Bio: Peter Lake is an amateur Astronomer from Melbourne, Australia, a member of Variable Stars South and the AAVSO and he owns and operates a 0.5m Planewave CDK Telescope at New Mexico skies, which is affiliated to iTelescope.net. Peter has been a participant in citizen science and recovered asteroid 2000 EV70 during the Spacewatch FMO program. More recently Peter has been actively involved in the study of cataclysmic variable star FS Aur, and followup exoplanet observations on Kepler targets of interest.
Sponsor: This episode of “365 days of Astronomy” is sponsored by iTelescope.net – Expanding your horizons in astronomy today. The premier on-demand telescope network, at dark sky sites in Spain, New Mexico and Siding Spring, Australia.
Transcript:
365 Days Podcast – OSIRIS-REx Mission
Hi and welcome, my name is Peter Lake from the AARTScope Blog, an amateur astronomer from Melbourne Australia and I have just joined my first space mission.
That’s right the OSIRIS-REx Target Asteroids mission, is sponsored by the NASA Goddard Space centre and the Arizona University.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid , study it in detail, and bring back a sample (at least 60 grams or 2.1 ounces) to Earth.
This sample will help us investigate planet formation and the origin of life, and the data collected at the asteroid will also aid our understanding of asteroids that can impact Earth – and this is where it gets really interesting, (101955) is currently the most dangerous asteroid discovered and in 2182 has a 1:1800 chance of hitting the earth. That’s still low odds and as more astrometry and data is gathered on this object through the program those odds may change. So this is a vital mission to find out more about the formation of asteroids and the left over parts of our solar system but also to secure our future and understand the real threat from this asteroid.
On the 12th of April the NASA Goddard space center and Arizona University announced the New Frontiers mission in a press release and asked for amateur astronomers to make observations of asteroids and be part of underpinning the success of this mission.
OSIRIS-Rex Press release: NASA Goddard Space Center/Arizona University
“Amateur astronomers are about to make observations that will affect current and future space missions to asteroids.
Some will use custom-made, often automated, telescopes equipped with CCD cameras in their backyards. Others will use home computers to make remote observations with more powerful telescopes states or continents away. Many belong to leading national and international amateur astronomy organizations with members ranging from retirees to school kids.
Researchers on NASA’s robotic asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, are turning to amateur astronomers for new data on near-Earth asteroids in a citizen science observing campaign called “Target Asteroids!” The campaign starts in April 2012 and will last at least to the end of this decade.
Now you may be aware that OSIRIS was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, which is interesting from the seeds of life perspective, but the term OSIRIS here has a more complex meaning here:
The full name of the OSIRIS-REx mission is Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer.
So what’s a regolith anyway? Well it’s the outer crusty surface of the asteroid, in this case of a carbonaceous asteroid, that is likely to have more organic compounds than say a iron-nickel asteroid.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is to launch in 2016, reach a well-characterized primitive asteroid called (101955) 1999 RQ36 in 2019, examine that body up close during a 505-day rendezvous, then return at least 60 grams of it to Earth in 2023.
“Asteroids are a rich and accessible historic archive of the origin of our Solar System and life, a valuable source of mineral resources, and potentially hazardous Earth impactors that civilization must learn to deal with,” said OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona. “Our mission will address all these issues.”
1999 RQ36 — a 500-meter-diameter, dark carbonaceous asteroid — is difficult for even powerful Earth-based telescopes to observe at this time because it is relatively distant from Earth.
Amateur astronomers are asked to observe asteroids selected because they are in near-Earth orbits that can be reached by current-generation spacecraft and are at least 200 meters in diameter, said Target Asteroids! scientist Carl Hergenrother, head of the OSIRIS-REx astronomy working group.
Precise orbits, sizes, rotation rates, physical composition and other important characteristics for these asteroids are largely unknown. Seventy-four asteroids are listed now, but the list will grow as observers get more information on known asteroids and discover new ones, Hergenrother said.
“We want amateur astronomers to do astrometry (which precisely measures positions of objects), photometry (which measures brightness) and spectroscopy (which measures the colors, or wavelengths, of light) to discover as much as we can about these objects,” he said.
“These will be challenging objects to observe because they are very faint,” said Target Asteroids! coordinator Dolores Hill of the OSIRIS-REx education and public outreach program. “Amateur astronomers may have to make what are called ‘track and stack’ observations,” a technique that acquires and adds multiple short images.
“One of the major goals of having amateur astronomers on board is they can observe these objects every night, unlike professional astronomers who may get to telescopes once every few nights, or more typically once a month or every three months,” Hergenrother said.
People don’t need to own their own telescopes or live under clear skies to work on Target Asteroids!, Hergenrother and Hill emphasized.
For not much money, observers can now go online and sign up to use a growing network of quality robotic telescopes sited at some of the choicest astronomical spots in the country, they added.
Scientists will compare data from amateur and professional astronomers’ ground-based observations with data from OSIRIS-REx spacecraft instruments to learn more about Earth-crossing asteroids and identify likely candidates for future asteroid missions, they said.
“The OSIRIS-REx mission truly is a ‘ground truth’ mission, the connection between meteorites on the ground and asteroids that are still orbiting the sun that could hit the ground,” Hill said.
Not long ago, astronomers disparaged asteroids as the “vermin of the skies,” said Ed Beshore, OSIRIS-REx deputy principal investigator. Astronomers saw asteroids as bothersome “noise,” unwanted streaks of light that contaminated their photographic views of celestial objects farther out in the cosmos.
That thinking changed when people realized how much damage near-Earth asteroids can do when they hit Earth as meteorites, Beshore said.
For example, sophisticated mathematical modeling shows that the chunk of meteorite that blasted 1.25-kilometer-wide Meteor Crater out of northern Arizona’s Colorado Plateau about 50,000 years ago was less than 70 meters wide. Granted, that space rock was a rare iron-nickel meteorite that carried a much greater wallop than a stony or carbonaceous meteorite of the same size would have had. But still, that’s impressive.
Until Beshore was named OSIRIS-REx deputy principal investigator earlier this year, he directed the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey. This NASA-funded survey has led the world in searching for potentially hazardous NEOs, or near-Earth objects, since 2005. Amateur astronomers have helped enormously by providing follow-up observations that find orbits of newly discovered asteroids, Beshore said.
“Amateur astronomy today is much different than it was, say, even in the mid-1990s,” Beshore said. “The amateur astronomy community working now is extremely sophisticated. They have more advanced computers. They have developed a tremendous number of turnkey solutions to automate their telescopes. And they now can rent telescopes larger than most amateurs can afford.
So, Amateur Astronomers, you can participate by going to the OSIRIS-Rex Website and registering and finding out more about how to submit the information about your telescope and how to submit your data.
Details here:http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/targetasteroids.html
Register Here: http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/events/TAObserverRegForm041012.pdf
There is also a great FAQ that will answer all your questions.
There are currently 6 of the 70 Targets visible: The headline act only sneaks above the horizon in New Mexico for about one hour a night, but is a good target for southern Scopes – that’s of course (101955) 1999 RQ36.
Here is a video I took this week from New Mexico on a half meter scope, with it sailing along at magnitude 19.6.
http://youtube/n6UJ6p3Vq4E
Almost all are numbered objects (which means they have good multi-opposition orbits) and many are PHAs!!!!
These five are all currently visible from New Mexico: for a good part of the night: 10302, 138911, 162173, 163000 & last but not least 141018 is a bright Mag 15 so a good target for beginners.
You can get their ephemeris and co-ords here: http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html
By entering the numbered objects above into the ephemeris generator one per line, don’t forget your observatory code or Lat/Long and if necessary also click on the one line element to get the one line element for your planetarium software for GOTO scopes.
This is your chance to be part of the history of this 13 year, $1B NASA Goddard Space Center – New Frontiers Mission, and work with professional astronomers at the University of Arizona.
This is important, (101955) 1999 RQ36 is the most dangerous PHA, a virtual impactor, and has a 1:1800 chance in hitting earth in 2182. Whilst that is still 170 years away, your great, great grandchildren may well thank you.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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