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Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
travelers-in-the-nightTitle:
Travelers in the Night Digest:Eps. 379 & 380 – Flying Mud Balls & Southern Colleagues

Organization: Travelers in The Night

Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus

Description: Today’s 2 topics:

  • 75% of asteroid hunter’s discoveries are called C type asteroids.
  • Discovery of 2017 NN6 by SONEAR Observatory

Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona.  This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.

He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.

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Transcript:
379 – Flying Mud Balls 
75% of asteroid hunter’s discoveries are called C type asteroids. They are dark, have a high abundance of carbon, consist of clay and silicate rocks, and may have a composition which is up to 22% water. Recently Dr. Phillip A. Bland of Curtin University in Australia and Dr. Bryan Travis of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona published an article in the on line journal Science Advances describing their numerical simulations of the evolution of the progenitors of the C type asteroids. These researchers find that these common asteroids are likely to have started out as giant convecting mud balls which could still exist at the center of large asteroids like Ceres. The C type asteroids are particularly significant in that they are likely to have been one of the ingredients which came together under gravity to form Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Their impacts upon a young Earth are likely to be the source of the water in our oceans. Of more immediate interest is that the type C asteroids could be a handy source of water and raw materials for space colonists either as they are currently flying through space or found buried in impact craters on the Moon.

That the 587 mile diameter, oblate spheroid, asteroid Ceres may still have a convecting mud core and thus be geologically active fits with the Dawn Spacecraft’s recent observations of new features on it’s surface. In the far distant future Ceres may visited by human astronauts who could use it for a base to launch truly deep space missions.

380 – Southern Colleagues
Recently asteroid hunters at the SONEAR Observatory in Brazil used an 18 inch telescope equipped with an electronic camera to discover 2017 NN6, a 1,100 foot diameter, potentially hazardous asteroid, which can come to a bit over 7 times the Moon’s distance from our home planet. After Jacques, Pimentel, and Barrows, the three SONEAR observers, posted their discovery observations on the Minor Planet Center’s Near Earth Object Confirmation Page, Scientists at the Minor Planet Center used these data give it the name 2017 NN6, estimate it’s size, and make a preliminary determination of it’s 1234 day orbital path around the Sun. 2017 NN6 will not impact the Earth in the foreseeable future, however, astronomers will continue to monitor it as it crosses the orbits of Venus, Earth, and Mars.

2017 NN6 is the latest in the SONEAR Observatory’s list of discoveries which includes 5 comets, 26 near Earth objects, and a number of other asteroids. In 2014, one of them, comet C/2014 E2 Jacques delighted observers as it passed 35 degrees from the north Celestial Pole. In this age in which science is being advanced by large teams of scientists with budgets in the millions to billions of dollars, it is gratifying that a small, determined group of knowledgeable, individuals with modest resources, such as exist at the SONEAR Observatory, are able to make significant scientific discoveries.

For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.

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365 Days of Astronomy
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