Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Digest: Eps. 33 & 34: A Busy Month in the Earth Neighborhood & Number 5,000!
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:
- March of 2014 was a busy month. Six asteroids which pass closer than our Moon were discovered and tracked.
- The 5,000th Earth approaching asteroid discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey was found early in 2014. It is ~ 3 times the size of the one in Chelyabinsk, Russia in February of 2013.
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:
21E – A Busy Month in the Earth Neighborhood
For us who look for Earth approaching objects, March of 2014 was a busy month. Six asteroids which pass closer than our Moon were discovered and tracked. The smallest of them is the size of an SUV and the largest would fill an NBA basketball court. Fortunately none of them were on a collision course with Planet Earth.
Interest in smaller space rocks has increased since a semitrailer truck sized asteroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere over Russia in February of 2013. Most of the nearly 1500 injuries could have been avoided if people in the impact area had been warned to stay away from windows.
In January of 2014 a refrigerator sized asteroid was discovered about 20 hours before it exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is estimated that there are a billion near Earth Asteroids of similar size.
It is likely that we have discovered 90% of the approximately one thousand near Earth asteroids whose impact would cause global climate change. There are probably 300,000 smaller Earth approaching asteroids whose impact would devastate thousands of square miles of the Earth’s surface. So far we have discovered about 5,000 of them. There are many millions of space rocks which could cause window breaking sonic booms. Happily we have not discovered any of these objects which will impact the Earth any time soon.
An Asteroid impact is a natural disaster whose effect we have the ability to minimize . The NASA Near Earth Object Program’s goal is provide the early detection essential to mitigate such an event.
22E – Number 5,000!
The 5000th Earth approaching asteroid discovered by the University of Arizona’s NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey was found early in 2014. It is approximately 3 times the size of the one which injured 1491 people in Russia in February of 2013. It was discovered by my teammate Jess Johnson. Happily, its closest approach to Earth is slightly farther than our moon.
The other 4999 asteroids discovered since 2003 consist of:
> 141 that are large enough to cause global climate change,
> 1892 that are large enough to
devastate thousands of square miles of the Earth’s Surface, and
> 2966 that upon entering our atmosphere would create
window shattering sonic booms.
Fortunately none of these objects will impact the Earth anytime soon.
Our team operates two telescopes, 24 nights per month in the Catalina Mountains near Tucson, Arizona. This effort has discovered 47% of the near Earth Asteroids known to exist. We are part of the NASA near Earth Object Program who goal is to provide the early warning time which is essential to mitigate the effects of an asteroid impact.
Fortunately large asteroids which impact the Earth are extremely rare. Small asteroids are the most numerous and thus mostly likely to present a problem. In the future we hope to have the equipment in place to obtain a heads up if a small asteroid is likely to be an impactor. Then people that are in a potentially effected area will be warned to seek shelter in a manner similar to a tornado warning.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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