Travelers In The Night

Recent findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research suggests that there is more water locked in the minerals of nearby asteroids, which are easier to reach than the Moon, than could be found in ice deposits near the lunar poles. This asteroidal water combined with solar energy could provide space colonists with water to drink, air to breathe, and hydrogen and oxygen to fuel their rockets.

SpaceShipTwo will carry 6 passengers and two pilots and be launched from the 18,000 acre SpacePort America in New Mexico

At its closest point, a small space rock comes to only 1/3 of Mercury's average distance from the solar surface and receives 9 times the amount of solar energy which heats the planet Mercury to 800F. If it has the chemical composition of a stony meteorite it could contain a sizable amount of iron and in the future could be of interest to space colonists as a valuable source raw materials.

Water is essential to life on our planet. Recently, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was used to study 3 planets orbiting stars similar to our Sun. Astronomers divided the infrared light from these planets into its component colors to see which are present and which are missing. These data provide direct evidence of the amount of water which is present on each planet.

Nine hours after it was discovered a tiny, 4 foot in diameter, space rock streaked less than 4,000 miles above southern Africa as it passed through the cloud of communications satellites which surround our planet. If you are fortunate to witness such an event you would be treated to a spectacular light show and perhaps of a new sense of appreciation for Earth's atmosphere as it protects us from the dangers of space.

NASA's Deep Space Network is celebrating its 50th birthday. Australia, Spain, and California host its three sites. These facilities are spaced nearly evenly around the world to provide continuous communication with any spacecraft.

October of 2019 was a record breaking month for my team the Catalina Sky Survey during which we discovered 240 Earth approaching asteroids. This diverse collection of space rocks ranged in size from one that would fit into the bed of a small pickup truck to one which is more than 1/2 mile in diameter. Three of them can come closer to us than the communication satellites.

The Opportunity Rover has been joined by, a car sized robot, named Curiosity. So far it has found that ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. You can follow its journey on the NASA Curiosity website. What will it find next?

In ancient times, Aboriginal people in southwestern Australia quarried fine grained rock on an ancient hill called Barlangi Rock to make very sharp tools. Dr. Timmons Erickson, a NASA scientist at the Johnson Space Flight Center, led a team which discovered that the rocks the Aborigines used to make tools were formed by the impact which produced the 46 mile diameter Yarrabubba Crater. Over the course of history asteroid impacts have caused mass extinctions of some species while improving the chances of other living forms like mammals to flourish. It is sobering to realize that human caused global warming is causing more extinctions than any asteroid in history.

The NEOShield project is an international group of scientists and engineers from space faring nations. They are doing the detailed analysis and planning required to provide an effective means of dealing with an asteroid which is on a collision course with planet Earth. They are also studying the ways to protect us from falling man made space debris since it is a greater danger than asteroids.

In the space of less than 13 hours four small space rocks zipped through the Earth-Moon neighborhood. All of them were discovered by my team, the NASA funded, Catalina Sky Survey, before they made close approaches to our home planet.

A unique opportunity occurred in January of 2000, when a large meteoroid exploded and rained down pieces onto the frozen surface of Tagish Lake in British Columbia.Dr. Christopher Herd of the University of Alberta said that the first Tagish Lake samples were quickly collected from the frozen surface. They are the best preserved meteorite in the world. Dr. Michael Callahan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center commented that they are the closest thing in purity to those collected in a space sample and return mission.

On a clear but windy night, near the fall equinox, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was able to discover and verify 23 new Earth approaching objects as they passed through our celestial neighborhood.

Research indicates that Vitamin B3 can form on ice crystals in deep space. From there asteroids and comets can bring it to Earth. How rocks from space play into life as we know it remains a mystery for us to ponder.

An object the size of this huge space rock enters the Earth's atmosphere every 180,000 years with an energy of 5,800 megatons of TNT. The only place to survive would be in an underground bunker.

About 26 weeks after its discovery, astronomers in Australia were the first to notice that an asteroid was beginning to have a fuzzy appearance. Six weeks later, Damian Peach, in England, took a stunning image showing this object is a beautiful comet with a coma and a long tail. This type of frog to prince transformation shows that the distinction between an asteroid and a comet may change depending on the objects distance from the Sun.

During the monsoon rainy season, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate, Hannes Groeller took a vacation in his native Austria. Returning to begin the fall season of observing with our Schmidt Telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona, Hannes discovered 7 new Earth approaching asteroids in a single night.

Asteroid Hunters have discovered almost 900 Earth Approaching Asteroids whose impact could trigger global climate change. Fortunately none of them are on a collision course with planet Earth. Statistically we expect that there about another 100 out there. There are many more smaller ones whose impact would cause a hurricane sized area of devastation.

One of the most frustrating situations for an asteroid hunter is a night when the stars are shining bright above the mountain but the humidity is so high that it is impossible to open the telescope's dome without damaging sensitive optics and electronics.

Eric Christensen was observing with the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey Telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he discovered a bright fast moving object in the night sky. During the next 25 hours it was observed by telescopes in Arizona and France and given the name 2014 MH6. It orbits the Sun in a bit over 16 months on a path which goes from closer than Venus to out past Mars.2014 MH6 is slightly smaller than the asteroid whose airburst caused more than 1000 flying glass injuries in Russia in February of 2013.