Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps.313E & 314E: Greg’s Destination & Whoppers
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s two stories:
- A winter storm hit Mt. Lemmon, Arizona closing access to the observatory by blowing over trees and producing large snow drifts. After the Mountain Operations Crew cleared the road, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was able to make his way to the top and discover an asteroid which could be visited by human astronauts. Greg’s new 120 foot diameter space rock, named 2017 BV93, spends most of its time between Earth and Venus as it orbits the Sun once every 346 days.
- Recently, my Catalina Team Captain Eric Christensen discovered a potentially hazardous 3,000 foot diameter asteroid, 2017 CH1. Asteroid hunters are discovering less than one asteroid of this size or greater per month. Eric’s discovery, 2017 CH1, has an orbit which can bring it to about twice the Moon’s distance from planet Earth. Although it will not come anywhere near Earth in the foreseeable future, asteroid hunters will continue to monitor 2017 CH1’s orbit to make sure that it remains no threat to planet 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:
313E – Greg’s Destination
A winter storm hit Mt. Lemmon, Arizona closing access to the observatory by blowing over trees and producing large snow drifts. After the Mountain Operations Crew cleared the road, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was able to make his way to the top and discover an asteroid which could be visited by human astronauts. Greg’s new 120 foot diameter space rock , named 2017 BV93, spends most of its time between Earth and Venus as it orbits the Sun once every 346 days.
JPL and NASA have created the Near-Earth Object Human Space Accessible Targets or NHATS webpage which contains tools for evaluating newly discovered asteroids.
If a rocket speed of less than 7Km/s or 4.4 miles per second is chosen, Greg’s new space rock 2017 BV93 pops up on the NHATS table. On this possible mission, the astronauts would spend 89 days getting to 2017 BV93, 88 days at the asteroid, and 137 days in return to Earth. A mission like this will develop techniques for obtaining water and metals from asteroids for space colonists.
Before such a trip could be seriously planned astronomers will need to measure the pattern of colors 2017 BV93 reflects to determine its chemical composition and be able to specify its path around the Sun with great precision.
314E – Whoppers
Recently, my Catalina Team Captain Eric Christensen discovered a potentially hazardous 3,000 foot diameter asteroid, 2017 CH1. Asteroid hunters are discovering less than one asteroid of this size or greater per month. Eric’s discovery, 2017 CH1, has an orbit which can bring it to about twice the Moon’s distance from planet Earth. Although it will not come anywhere near Earth in the foreseeable future, asteroid hunters will continue to monitor 2017 CH1’s orbit to make sure that it remains no threat to planet Earth.
Asteroid hunters have discovered more than 870 Earth approaching asteroids which are more than one km or about 3,300 feet in diameter. It is important that asteroid hunters find and track the approximately 90 asteroids remaining in this size range which have not been discovered, since the tiny chance of the once every 500,000 years impact of one of them, would have a global damaging effect on weather and agriculture. Using some mid range values it is estimated that the impact of a 1 KM object could release more energy than 800 large hydrogen bombs and produce a crater 8 or 9 miles in diameter. The US Congress has directed NASA to find and track one Km or larger near Earth asteroids which is the reason they are a special focus of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Fortunately none of these large celestial objects are heading our way. Asteroid hunters will continue to scan the sky for any others that might exist.
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365 Days of Astronomy
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