Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 57 & 58: Hold a Traveler in The Night in Your Hand & NASA Hunts for a Special Asteroid
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:
- Imagine holding a rock as old as our solar system that has traveled billions of miles through space to reach its present location.
- Asteroid 2011 MD’s mass and size make it a good candidate for NASA’s plans to use a robotic space craft to intercept and redirect a small asteroid into an orbit around our Moon.
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:
43E – 57 – Hold a Traveler in The Night in Your Hand & NASA Hunts for a Special Asteroid
Imagine holding a rock as old as our solar system that has traveled billions of miles through space to reach its present location. It might even be worth real money. We are talking about a meteorite that you have just discovered.
How do you find one?
First you will need a place to look. A place that is not littered with rocks is best. Obtain permission from a private land owner to look on their property. If you live near Federal BLM land you can collect up to 10 pounds per year without a permit. The great plains has few surface rocks and can be a great place to find meteorites. There are strewn fields from known celestial falls that you can check out. There is also a web site which lists recent meteor falls. Remember, please do not trespass on others land.
Detecting equipment includes your eye, a powerful magnet, and a metal detector. Train your eye using published photographs.
When you find an interesting rock, does it have a thin black rind like dark glassy fusion crust? Is it Magnetic? Is it heavier than other similar sized rocks? Does it have thumbprint like features? If the answers to these questions are yes, you may have found a meteorite.
Next do further research on your find. Hopefully you have found a real meteorite. Where did it come from? Possibilities include the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or maybe even the Moon, Mars, or a comet.
Happy hunting.
44E – 58 – NASA Hunts for a Special Asteroid
Several years ago the NASA funded Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Program discovered an SUV sized asteroid which comes closer to Earth than about 1/6 of the distance to the Moon. It was named 2011 MD. It remained a minor curiosity until the Spitzer Space Telescope spotted it again.
Dr. Michael Mommert of Northern Arizona University and his colleagues recently published a paper describing Spitzer’ s infrared imaging of 2011 MD. These data reveal that this asteroid is not very dense and may be a loose collection of boulders or a larger rock surrounded by dust. The leader of the Spitzer team, Dr. David Trilling, also of Northern Arizona University, commented “So far, we’ve looked at two asteroids and found both of them to be really weird — not at all like the one solid rock that we expected. We’re scratching our heads”.
2011 MD’s mass and size make it a good candidate for NASA’s plans to use a robotic space craft to intercept and redirect a small asteroid into an orbit around our Moon. So far 8 other small asteroids have been found to be suitable for this purpose. Once in orbit the captured asteroid will be visited by the manned Orion Spacecraft. The samples that Astronauts obtain and return to Earth will help us to prepare for the discovery that an asteroid is on a collision course with planet Earth.
The Orion vehicle and the new Space Launch System are essential to develop the capability for human beings to transition from low Earth orbit to the exploration of the Moon and Mars.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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