Target Asteroids!
http://www.dearastronomer.com/
Not quite what NASA has in mind when they ask people to target asteroids.
Many of you know by now, I’m quite the citizen science junkie. Any way that people can make contributions to real science is a major “win” in my book. Recently, NASA announced a new outreach project that aims to enlist the help of amateur astronomers in discovering near-Earth objects, and study their characteristics. The project is aptly named, “Target Asteroids!” and will help support NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission.
Scheduled for launch in 2016, the OSIRIS-Rex mission will help our understanding of near-Earth objects by studying the properties of asteroids, measuring their non-gravitational forces and provide observations that can be compared with data obtained by telescope observations from Earth. In 2023, OSIRIS-REx will return back to Earth at least 2.11 ounces (60 grams) of surface material from the asteroid.
“Asteroids are a rich and accessible historic archive of the origin of our Solar System and life, a valuable source of mineral resources, and potentially hazardous Earth impactors that civilization must learn to deal with,” said Dante Lauretta (University of Arizona). “Our mission will address all these issues.”
By involving amateur astronomers, the team hopes to better characterize the population of NEOs, including their position, motion, rotation and changes in the intensity of light they emit. Professional astronomers will use this information to refine theoretical models of asteroids, improving their understanding about asteroids similar to the one OSIRIS-Rex will encounter in 2019, designated 1999 RQ36. The data collected from Target Asteroids! should be useful in comparisons against actual mission data. The team plans to expand participation to students and teachers in 2014.
Carl Hergenrother, head of the OSIRIS-REx astronomy working group, mentioned “We want amateur astronomers to do astrometry (which precisely measures positions of objects), photometry (which measures brightness) and spectroscopy (which measures the colors, or wavelengths, of light) to discover as much as we can about these objects.”
“These will be challenging objects to observe because they are very faint,” added Target Asteroids! coordinator Dolores Hill (OSIRIS-REx education and public outreach program). “Amateur astronomers may have to make what are called ‘track and stack’ observations,” a technique that acquires and adds multiple short images.
“One of the major goals of having amateur astronomers on board is they can observe these objects every night, unlike professional astronomers who may get to telescopes once every few nights, or more typically once a month or every three months,” Hergenrother also added.
Amateur astronomers have worked to help support NASA’s NEO Observation Program for a very long time.
“For well over 10 years, amateurs have been important contributors in the refinement of orbits for newly discovered near-Earth objects,” said Edward Beshore, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx (University of Arizona).
If you’d like to learn more about Target Asteroids! and OSIRIS-REx, visit: http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu
Source:OSIRIS-REx Mission News
Ray Sanders is a Sci-Fi geek, astronomer and blogger. Currently researching variable stars at Arizona State University, he writes for Universe Today, The Planetary Society blog, and his own blog, Dear Astronomer
2012-12-04 08:07:40
Source: http://www.dearastronomer.com/2012/04/19/target-asteroids/
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