Lots Of Mucus Week Before Period Due

Record: 19 asteroids discovered in a night

With Pan-Starrs telescope , on top of Haleakala volcano, Hawaii, a group of astronomers was able to identify 19 objects in orbit around the Earth in one night, two of which could be hazardous. The team was a young Italian student.

A whole sleepless night. The thermos of coffee to resist the wide-eyed and sleep on the images of the Pan-Starrs telescope , mounted on top of the volcano Haleakala, Maui island archipelago of Hawaii. So last January 29 a team of astronomers has discovered 19 new asteroids near the Earth, the so-called Near Earth Object (NEO) . It's a record: the highest number of asteroids found in a single night.

Even the nights following the researchers were awake to analyze and confirm these observations. Among other insomniacs, there is an Italian student, Marco Micheli, graduated in astronomy at Normale di Pisa and then left for the tropical paradise. Not for a holiday, but to study the sky. Micheli was the protagonist of the discovery, confirmed later by telescopes all over the world (including Italy). Two of the asteroids, it emerged at the end, have orbits's extremely close to Earth. Although not an immediate danger, they could cause a crash (however unlikely) in the next 100 years. Fortunately, we think the astronomers to keep an eye on. We interviewed Marco Micheli to tell us about the discovery and its implications.

How did you end up in Hawaii?

have to Hawaii for almost four years to pursue a doctorate in astronomy at the Institute for Astronomy (IFA) at the University of Hawaii. I graduated in physics, with a degree in astronomy and astrophysics at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.

What do you do there?

My main work carried out by prof. David J. Tholen, is to observe the asteroids NEO potentially dangerous to Earth, in order to improve the knowledge of their orbit, and consequently the predictability of future impacts. For these observations, we use some of the telescopes located on Mauna Kea, an extinct volcano island largest of Hawaii. At the same time he worked on the project, Pan-Starrs, a survey of the sky involving many universities around the world, with its base at the Institute for Astronomy. The telescope used in this project is at the top all'Haleakala, another volcano in the Hawaiian island of Maui. The discovery stems from my involvement in this second collaboration. In addition, I am carrying out in parallel with my thesis project, similar in scope, which includes the use of telescopes on Mauna Kea, and a collaboration with a research group that manages data from NASA's infrared mission, WISE.

19 new asteroids in one night: as did you do?

for a whole night, the Pan-Starrs telescope was used to search for NEO asteroids. The hundreds of images collected were first analyzed by standard algorithms, and have been identified as possible moving objects. Tested on thousands of candidates were selected thirty of potential NEOs. The positions of these candidates were sent to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the institution officially in charge of the designation of new asteroids and comets. To confirm, each object had to be riosservato by other observatories around the world. From the day after alle osservazioni, mi sono messo a fare calcoli per prevedere se e dove sarebbero stati riosservabili la notte successiva gli oggetti trovati da Pan-STARR. Insieme al mio professore David J. Tholen e un altro studente di dottorato, Garrett T. Elliott, abbiamo ripetuto le osservazioni con due dei telescopi sul Mauna Kea. Abbiamo analizzato tutte le immagini raccolte, assieme a un altro professore del team Richard J. Wainscoat (nella foto). Risultato: 19 dei candidati erano effettivamente NEO.

E ora continuerete a monitorarli?

Ciascuno di questi oggetti sarebbe rapidamente perso se non fossero programmate continue osservazioni, in grado di affinarne l’orbita e la future predictability. In recent weeks we have been concerned about this. A better characterization orbital will facilitate the discovery to the next Earth flyby.

Discoveries like this are rare enough to have "patience" to wait?

The discovery of such a large number of asteroids NEO in one night is not a fortuitous coincidence, but it must be the performance of a telescope as Pan-Starrs. There are other tools dedicated almost exclusively to this purpose, but none is large enough (such as opening or room) you can easily match the number of discoveries in a single night. The implicazioni di questo evento sono interessanti: se in una singola notte, con un solo strumento, è stato possibile trovare alcune decine di oggetti ignoti e potenzialmente pericolosi per il nostro pianeta, ciò significa che ve ne potrebbero essere migliaia in attesa di essere scoperti.

Che tipo di asteroidi sono quelli scoperti?
Alcuni hanno dimensioni dell’ordine di qualche centinaio di metri. Se da un lato gli oggetti molto massicci (di qualche chilometro), capaci di causare estinzioni globali sul pianeta, sono fortunatamente rari (e in gran parte noti), dall’altro lato ci sono migliaia di oggetti più piccoli, magari non in grado di mettere in pericolo la vita umana, ma sicuramente capaci di causare disastri su scala regionale in caso di impatto. Eventi di questo genere sono prevedibili grazie alla scoperta anticipata dell’oggetto e, di conseguenza, prevenibili (anche semplicemente con un piano di evacuazione dell’area che sarà colpita).

C’è qualcuno degli oggetti osservati che potrebbe costituire un pericolo per la Terra?

Almeno sei hanno probabilità non nulle (anche se molto basse) di impattare con la Terra in questo secolo. Per almeno uno di essi, 2011 BM45, il rischio di impatto è piuttosto elevato in occasione di un incontro nel 2086: la probabilità di collisione is low (estimated to be present in about 1 / 25000 NEODyS team from the University of Pisa), but could have significant effects since it is an object of a few hundred meters in diameter. This is a typical example (not different from other known) of an object whose discovery and continuous monitoring, could be particularly useful and interesting.

Daniela Cipolloni

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