Travelers In The Night

Currently scientists, governments, and private citizens are preparing to mitigate a disaster caused by a large incoming space rock. To test techniques for characterizing a newly discovered potentially threatening asteroid, scientists are planning to treat Apophis as an unknown object when it becomes detectable to Earth bound telescopes in 2020-2021.

Indisputable proof that life existed or currently exists on the planet Mars has yet to be found. However, tantalizing pieces to this mystery continue to be discovered. It appears that conditions on Mars, 3.8 billion years ago, were similar to those on Earth at the time when we know that life developed here. The mystery of life continues to pull us towards the red planet.

Recently my Catalina Sky Survey teammate David Rankin searched for asteroids, as close to the Sun as possible with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona. His efforts were rewarded when he discovered 2020 UP3, illuminated like a thin crescent moon, trying to sneak by asteroid hunters in the evening twilight. This was a tremendous find since 2020 UP3 is more than 1 Km in diameter and is thus large enough to create significant damage if it entered our atmosphere.

In the distant future, an asteroid, with the diameter of the height of the One Worldwide Plaza skyscraper building in New York City, will likely make a close approach to planet Earth. This asteroid, 2014 XL7 makes close approaches to Venus, Earth, and Mars. Each such encounter can cause its orbit to change. It has been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid which means that the asteroid hunting community will be keeping special track of it.

Recently my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Teddy Pruyne was observing in the constellation Lacerta with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he spotted an unknown point of light streaking through the night sky. With only 5 days of data its path remains uncertain. Typically as asteroid hunters continue to track an object the chances it will strike the Earth decrease to essentially zero. Teddy's object is no threat now and will be monitored as it travels between Venus and Mars to make sure it continues to pose no danger to humanity.

I was observing with the Catalina Sky Survey, NASA funded, University of Arizona, 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon when a bright fast moving point of light caught my attention. It seemed much too bright not to be known, but when I checked with the Minor Planet Center, it was not in any of their catalogues. It was was subsequently observed by more than a dozen telescopes scattered around the world and given the name 2014 YE42. The asteroid hunting community will be keeping track of 2014 YE42,in the extremely unlikely event that its path is changed, to make it a threat, as it passes other objects in space.

In western Australia, rock samples and maps of the local geology obtained while exploring for gold show evidence of a 3 mile diameter meteor crater which features a small central pucker like protrusion.

In less than three and one half hours, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate, Rose Matheny, discovered three Potentially Hazardous Asteroids with the NASA funded, University of Arizona, Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow. As far as I know, this string of catches should go into the Asteroid Hunting Guinness book of records.

A large solar coronal mass ejection could put astronauts, airline passengers, power grids, electronic devices, and satellites at risk. Participants in the Solar Stormwatch citizen science project estimate the size and shape of coronal mass ejections using pictures taken by the NASA STEREO Spacecraft. So far in addition to having the thrill of discovery these citizen scientists have contributed to 7 scientific papers. To learn how to do this exciting research and become a member of a world wide community of solar storm watchers go to the Solar Stormwatch II website.

Spacecraft destined for Mars have so far used the Hohmann transfer to achieve an orbit about the red planet. This approach requires the launch from Earth orbit to be in a small window in time which becomes possible every 26 months. When the spacecraft gets near Mars retro rockets, which require hundreds of pounds of fuel, must be fired to slow it so that the spacecraft so that it does not exceed orbital speed. To make the trip to Mars orbit cheaper and more reliable a new technique has been theorized and then tested on Moon flights. It is called ballistic capture.

The Atira class of Earth approaching asteroids are ones whose orbit is entirely within that of the Earth's path about the Sun. Less than 3 dozen of the approximately 24,000 known near Earth asteroids fall into this category of near Sun objects. The largest one, Atira itself, is actually two asteroids orbiting each other once every 15.5 hours. One is about 3 miles in diameter and the other is perhaps 1/6th its size.

Rose Matheny's third solo night of asteroid hunting, using the University of Arizona Schmidt telescope, on Mt. Bigelow, was one of the longest of the year. She had prepared for this night over the past several months by mastering the unique set of observing skills required of an asteroid hunter with the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey. After searching the night sky for about 6 hours a bright fast moving object caught Rose's attention. She gave it the unofficial name of "zippy", Over the next 20 hours this new object was observed by telescopes in Arizona, Japan, and France. These data were used to calculate this small asteroid's orbit around the Sun and it was given the name 2014 YW14.

Recently, in the journal Nature Astronomy, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Faustine Cantalloube of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy released data from their study of the effects of climate change on the future of astronomical research. Climate change will continue degrade human's ability to learn from the Universe.

The dwarf planet Ceres may be a place in our solar system where life could have developed. At 590 miles in diameter it is the largest asteroid and only dwarf planet orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres appears to have rocky core surrounded by a thick mantle of water ice which accounts for up to 40% of its volume. How much of Ceres's water, if any, is in liquid form remains to be seen. The mystery of Ceres has deepened by the recent discovery of water emissions coming from this small world.

Most life on Earth is synchronized to the regular cycles of day and night. Until about a hundred years ago, the natural night sky was familiar to all humans. Most people could identify a few constellations and had experienced walking by starlight. Now all but a few are denied the privilege of seeing the Milky Way or a meteor streaking across the sky. To gaze into a star filled sky and wonder about other life which may exist in the Universe is worth preserving for future generations.

The goal of the NASA Near Earth Object Program is to discover any objects on a collision course with planet Earth. We now know of more than 90% of objects whose impact could cause global climate change. None of them is a current threat. A more likely problem are the millions of small space rocks which come near to us. We are working on creating the ability to give a tornado like warning for people to stay away from doors and windows should one of them be about to enter our atmosphere.

Recently, my wife and I saw a beautiful, bright, green, meteor fireball streaking across the western New Mexico night sky. Such sightings by some UFO enthusiasts , have been advanced as the best observations of alien spacecraft. Other observers have explained this phenomena as being sightings of secret American or Russian spy devices.

Auroral displays have been observed and reported on throughout human history. Data from NASA's 5 Themis (Themm us) satellites analyzed by powerful supercomputers is giving us new insight into how our magnetic shield protects us from the harsh radiation of space and blobs of material ejected from the Sun as well as to how to protect the GPS satellites we have learned to rely upon.

Atmospheric gravity waves can be powerful. In September of 2018 two glider pilots surfed an atmospheric gravity wave created by high speed polar winds as they encounter the Andes mountains. Amazingly their unpowered aircraft reached an altitude of more than 76,000 feet on a wave which itself can travel to more than 100,000 feet above sea level . By studying atmospheric gravity waves generated by tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis scientists hope we may be able to mitigate the disasters that these events can cause.

So far humans have discovered about 100 asteroids which could be visited by astronauts with current rocket capability. My group, the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona has discovered 65% of these Earth approaching space rocks.