Synopsis
Space, Asteroid Hunting, and Astronomy, an insider view. The music is "Eternity" by John Lyell. Astronomy Asteroids Space NASA Comets Earth Impact
Episodes
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739-Comet Groller(527)
07/04/2023 Duration: 02minMy Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Groller was asteroid hunting with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona when he discovered his first comet. After the Sun bakes out all of the frozen gasses, Hannes's Comet, will lose its coma and tail and become indistinguishable from one of the millions of main belt asteroids orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
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228E-240-Why
04/04/2023 Duration: 02minWhat motivates asteroid hunters?Large dangerous asteroids are still out there to find.
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738-Tiny Visitor(526)
31/03/2023 Duration: 02minA tiny space rock passes through the cloud of communications satellites surrounding the Earth.
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227E-239-Martian Lakes
28/03/2023 Duration: 02minWe may be able to learn about the possibilities of life on Mars by studying land forms on the Tibetan Plateau here on Earth.
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737-Collision(525)
24/03/2023 Duration: 02minI was asteroid hunting with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Steve Larson sent me an email requesting that I obtain some images of the asteroid 6478 Gault. Several days earlier, using mountain top telescopes in the Hawaiian islands , astronomers working with the ATLAS project reported that the perviously normally appearing asteroid 6478 Gault now has a 250,000 mile long straight tail. I added together four 60 second images which revealed a point of light with a tail which appeared to be similar to a long straight contrail left by a jet airplane high above the Earth. Images taken of 6478 Gault over the past several months suggest that it hit another object in the asteroid belt. If this idea is correct the collision fragments are what are giving this asteroid its long thin tail. Asteroid Gault is approximately 2.3 miles in diameter and thought to be a member of the Phocaea [Pho e ah] Family of main belt asteroids which themselves were formed by a violent collisio
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226E-238-Now Three
21/03/2023 Duration: 02minThe Catalina Sky Survey now operates three telescopes, 24 nights per month, in the Catalina mountains north of Tucson, Arizona.The Catalina Sky Survey began with the University of Arizona's 30 inch Schmidt Telescope on Mt. Bigelow. This telescope became the world leader when it was used to discover 148 Earth approaching objects in 2005. It found the most Potentially Hazardous Asteroids for the next three years running. In 2006 the University of Arizona's 60 inch telescope on nearby Mt. Lemmon received a new camera and many upgrades. In spite of the fact that this telescope was old enough for senior citizen discounts it rapidly became the world's leader in the discovery of Earth approaching asteroids. These telescopes began to make so many discoveries that a telescope which could observe newly discovered objects long enough so that their orbits around the Sun could be nailed down became a necessity. To fill this need an old unused 40 inch telescope was overhauled and installed in a new dome next to the 60 inch
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736-Home Wrecker(524)
17/03/2023 Duration: 02minThe extremely remote chance that a dangerous mountain sized space rock has our number on it is what keeps my team going to our four telescopes in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona.
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225E-237-Lost
14/03/2023 Duration: 02minThe asteroid named for Mildred Shapley Matthews was lost in the solar system for 75 years.In 1916 the 60 inch Hale telescope on Mt. Wilson, California was the largest telescope in the world. Seth Nicholson and Harlow Shapley used it to discover a 2 mile diameter asteroid. They only observed their new asteroid twice on their discovery night. Shapley named the asteroid Mildred for his one year old daughter. Nicholson and Shapley were able to find asteroid Mildred a couple of times during the month after it's discovery. After that it's 1324 day orbit around the Sun was so poorly defined that astronomers did not know where to point their telescopes to observe it and Mildred was declared "lost". Friends of Mildred Shapley Matthews would always ask her if she was found yet. In fact it was not until she was 76 years old that Dr. Gareth Williams rediscovered "lost" asteroid Mildred. After 3/4 of a century of being lost Mildred was found.
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735-One Thousand(523)
10/03/2023 Duration: 02minFor the first time in history, an asteroid hunting team, the Catalina Sky Survey, has discovered more than 1,000 Earth approaching asteroids in a single year. They are an interesting part of our environment.
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224E-236-Enceladus's Ocean
07/03/2023 Duration: 02minPound for pound Saturn's moon Enceladus is the brightest object in our solar system. It is so shiny that it reflects most of the sunlight that strikes it. Since Enceladus absorbs little sunlight it's surface is 330 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Below its icy exterior the story is very different. It appears that Enceladus has an ocean of liquid water. What Next?
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734-Comets Africano(522)
03/03/2023 Duration: 02minDuring Comet C/2018 V4 Africano's last visit to the inner solar system humans were erecting the outer ring at Stonehenge. At the rate human's are changing the Earth's climate who can guess what will be happening on Earth when this comet returns in about 6,000 AD.
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223E-235-Fragment
28/02/2023 Duration: 02minMillions of years ago two large asteroids collided in the asteroid belt. Pieces were sent flying in all directions. A few of them were put into orbits which rise high above and below the plane of the solar system as they continued to travel around the Sun. A fragment is discovered from a collision long ago as it comes near the Earth. Fortunately this space rock will not strike the Earth anytime soon. It will continue to orbit the Sun in the silent vacuum of space until it has a collision with another asteroid or comet in the far distant future.
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733-Lunar Space Rock(521)
24/02/2023 Duration: 02minRecently, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Groller discovered an Earth approaching asteroid which has a speed consistent with it being ejected from the Moon by the impact of an asteroid or comet long ago. 69 hours after Hannes discovered it, this small space rock passed closer than the communication satellites are from us.
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222E-234-Salty and Cold
21/02/2023 Duration: 02minThere is increasing evidence that Jupiter's moon Europa, Saturn's moon Enceladus, and other bodies in our solar system have oceans of salty liquid water in contact with warm rock layers. We know that on Earth life abounds under these conditions around volcanic vents. Could such biodiversity be happening elsewhere?
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732-Comet Lemmon(520)
17/02/2023 Duration: 02minComets Travel Between Stars. An interstellar traveler visits our neighborhood on its tour of the Milky Way. Comet Lemmon will continue on a hyperbolic path into deep space. In 2043 it will be further than the average distance that Pluto is from our Sun. Eons from now comet C/2018 U1 (Lemmon) may enter another solar system and be tracked by intelligent beings as it continues its tour of the Milky Way.
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221E-233-Tiny Visitor
14/02/2023 Duration: 02minAsteroids are part of our environment.An SUV sized space rock has spent eons traveling through the silent vacuum of space. In the past 50 years, without humans being aware of its existence, it has made 29 close approaches to planet Earth and 11 visits to the vicinity our sister planet Venus. In the relatively near future asteroid hunters will be able to find more dspace rocks like this one before they impact Earth and thus be able to issue a warning for a space rock which is about to explode over a populated area.
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731-Greg's Comet(519)
10/02/2023 Duration: 02minThe discovery of a Jupiter family comet whose fate is to become a garden variety main belt asteroid.
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220E-232-Dangerous Aten
07/02/2023 Duration: 02minAten asteroids pose a threat as well as an economic opportunity for humans.
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730-Busy Night(518)
03/02/2023 Duration: 02minOn Halloween night while observing with the Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona I discovered 21 space rocks streaking through the night sky. The most interesting one could be the destination of asteroid miners.
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219E-231-Hot Hand
31/01/2023 Duration: 02minEvery year asteroid hunters discover about a hundred objects which are larger than 450 feet in diameter and come closer than 20 times the Moon's distance from us. We call these potentially hazardous asteroids. In 2015 my group the Catalina Sky Survey discovered 21 of them. It was thus exciting news to our team, when, recently, our newest team member Greg Leonard discovered three of them in rapid succession.