Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 287E & 288E: Sensing A Comet & Close One
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s two stroy:
- More than 400 years ago Galileo Galilei expanded human vision using a telescope to view the cosmos. Since then humans have extended their senses to view the Universe in x-rays, ultraviolet, infrared, radio, and other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum not accessible to our senses. In a pioneering effort, Ekaterina Smirnova has employed the spectroscopy, magnetometry, and molecular data collected by the Rosetta spacecraft to create watercolor paintings, sculptures, a musical collaboration, and an augmented reality project to create new art forms.
- My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Rose Matheny had no way of knowing that the fast moving point of light that she had just discovered would create such a stir. Rose sent in her discovery and followup observations to the Minor Planet Center where astronomers calculated that her discovery would make a very close approach to Earth about two days later and gave it the name 2016 RB1. More than two dozen observatories around the world tracked 2016 RB1 as it came towards us.
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:
287E – Sensing a Comet
More than 400 years ago Galileo Galilei expanded human vision using a telescope to view the cosmos. Since then humans have extended their senses to view the Universe in x-rays, ultraviolet, infrared, radio, and other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum not accessible to our senses.
In a pioneering effort, Ekaterina Smirnova has employed the spectroscopy, magnetometry, and molecular data collected by the Rosetta spacecraft to create watercolor paintings, sculptures, a musical collaboration, and an augmented reality project to create new art forms. She has also taken Rosetta data obtained from it’s close up observations of comet 67P to create interactive art which uses a smart phone app to experience scientific results in a completely new way.
Using the chemical composition of comet 67P obtained with Rosetta’s mass spectrometer Ekaterina and her collaborators have produced the smell of the comet. In addition she collaborated with musicians and sound engineers using Rosetta data to produce a musical composition which tells the story of how comets travel through the solar system on their own cycles releasing dust, water vapor, and organic molecules into space. The piece uses 67P’s magnetic field oscillation frequencies, the human heart beat, and the sounds of the ocean to stimulate the ways in which comets transport and deposit life’s ingredients through out the Universe.
Ekaterina Smirnova is connecting real scientific results with the senses to explore new dimensions in which to experience the wonders of the Universe.
288E – Close One
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Rose Matheny had no way of knowing that the fast moving point of light that she had just discovered would create such a stir. Rose sent in her discovery and followup observations to the Minor Planet Center where astronomers calculated that her discovery would make a very close approach to Earth about two days later and gave it the name 2016 RB1. More than two dozen observatories around the world tracked 2016 RB1 as it came towards us.
During the next 48 hours 2016 RB1 was observed intensively by the Center for Solar System Studies in California, the Lowell Discovery Channel Telescope in Arizona, and NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii as part of the Mission Accessible Near Earth Object Survey. Dr. Audrey Thirouin of Lowell Observatory presented the results of the analysis of these data at the 48th Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in California. This team of scientists were able to discover that 2016 RB1 is a metal rich object, approximately 20 feet in diameter, rotates once ever 96 seconds, and is suitable for a visit by one of our spacecraft. Dr. Bill Ryan of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory also observed this object and reported that it came to about 125 miles from two DIRECTV satellites.
If 2016RB1 had been about to hit, this team could have predicted that it would likely produce a light show, a sonic boom, and would be no threat to humans on the ground many hours before impact.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
365 Days of Astronomy
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