Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Digest: Eps. 497 & 498: First One Tiny Travelers
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- Brian Africano discovered Asteroid 2018 RA, which had just passed near to Earth about five and half hours after Brian’s discovery observations. This 47 foot diameter space rock came to less than 3 Earth-Moon distances from our Moon.
- 21 hours after Brian Africano discovered it, 2018 RW passed a bit less than half the Moon’s distance from Earth.
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:
497 – First One
It had been an unbroken Arizona monsoon spell of 57 rainy, cloudy nights, during which my team, the Catalina Sky Survey, had been unable to discover any new Earth approaching asteroids. At long last the skies cleared briefly, allowing my teammate Brian Africano to open his dome and get on the sky. Brian quickly pointed our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona towards the constellation of Pegasus and started taking images. He was delighted when an unknown fast moving object appeared moving through the sky. For the day and a half after Brian posted his discovery observations on the Minor Planet Center’s Near Earth Object Confirmation Page, this new object was tracked by telescopes in Arizona, England, Italy, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Romania. Turns out that Asteroid 2018 RA, as Brian’s discovery is now known, had just passed near to Earth and about five and half hours after Brian’s discovery observations, this 47 foot diameter space rock, came to less than 3 Earth-Moon distances from our Moon. It is unlikely to come so near to us again, for the foreseeable future, but will pass near to Mars in 2026. A space rock like 2018 RA enters the Earth’s atmosphere every 16 years or so, explodes at an altitude of 100,000 feet, produces a sonic boom, and rains fragments of itself on to the ground for meteorite hunters to discover. Hopefully asteroid hunters will detect the next such impactor well in advance so that you can go outside and enjoy the show.
498 – Tiny Travelers
Although interplanetary space is not crowded with asteroids as is sometimes portrayed in science fiction movies, there are still hundreds of millions of small Earth approaching space rocks, similar to the asteroid 2018 RW, which my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Brian Africano discovered recently. It is a tribute to Brian’s skill and our equipment and software that he was able to spot and track this interplanetary traveler, small enough to fit under a basket ball hoop, when it was one and a quarter times the Moon’s distance from Earth, streaking through the constellation of Pisces at 3.8 miles per second. 21 hours after Brian discovered it, 2018 RW passed a bit less than half the Moon’s distance from Earth. Sixteen hours later it came near our moon, on its 293 day long path around the Sun. It is not likely to come near again in the foreseeable future. Once every 5 month’s or so a space rock like 2018 RW enters the Earth’s atmosphere, breaks up about 3 times higher than airliners fly, releasing the energy of 220 tons of TNT. Such an event creates a spectacular light show in the night sky for us to enjoy. Although small space rocks like 2018 RW pose no threat to humans, they are an interesting part of our environment, offer a chance for asteroid hunters to develop their tracking skills, and occasionally provide an opportunity for a meteorite hunter to touch an object from outer space.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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