Travelers In The Night

Humans are slamming projectiles into space rocks. These experiments will give us the know how to deal with a dangerous space rock which has our number on it.

One million human lifetimes ago an asteroid impact was at least partially responsible for eliminating the dinosaurs. This event has allowed our race to evolve to its present stateThose of us in the asteroid hunting community are also looking for the near Earth asteroids whose impact would leave a hurricane sized foot print on the Earth's surface or produce a mega tsunami if it landed in the Ocean. We are searching the skies to provide the warning time necessary to mitigate the effects of an asteroid impact.

In 1972 Apollo 16 astronauts took an ultraviolet image of the Earth from the Moon which shows that like the Sun ,the Earth too, has a faint corona of gas surrounding it. Scientists are just beginning to explore how Earth's glow relates to our weather and climate.

Imagine a world that is so far from our Sun that it receives less than 1/5000 of the heat and light that makes our life possible. If your were standing on it, you could cover the Sun with the tip of a ball point pen held at arms length.

Traveling an additional billion miles beyond Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft is now sending back data on 2014 MU69, a strange snow man shaped object which orbits the Sun once every 298 years. The New Horizons is spacecraft is likely to continue its lonely odyssey until the end of time.

A human with normal vision standing on Mars would see the Earth and our Moon as a double evening star. An observer on Mars would also see the distance between the Earth and Moon change as they revolve around a common center of gravity. Perhaps one day humans will set up a base on the red planet and will be able to view this beautiful celestial display.

In our Milky Way Galaxy alone there are probably 25 billion planets located within the habitable zone of its star where there could be air to breathe and liquid water on its surface. The search is on for advanced civilizations . The search is on for aliens.

Programs 31-60Travelers in The NightProgramsContents 1 31-A Gentle Breakup Of An Asteroid 2 32-A Peanut Shaped Asteroid with a Moon 3 33-A Busy Month in the Earth's Neighborhood 4 34- Number 5000 5 35-An Asteroid With A Ring 6 36- Earth and Moon as Evening Stars 7 37-Slow Movers At The Edge of Our Solar System 8 38-The Big Ones 9 39-Dash Cams and the Anatomy of An Airburst 10 40-Itokawa A Strange Space Peanut 11 41-Navigating The Night Sky 12 42-Astronauts Reveal Sobering Data On Asteroid Impacts 13 43-First Earth-Size Planet in 'Habitable Zone' 14 44-A Unique Metal World; Asteroid Psyche 15 45-A World Full of Holes 16 46-How Far Is Forever 17 47-Earth Approaching Space Rocks Collected Over 6 Nights 18 48-Large Dangerous Asteroids Still Appear Suddenly Without Warning 19 49-Earth Approaching Wannabees 20 50-Asteroid 2014 JO25: What An Incredible Ride 21 51-Asteroid 2007 VK184 - Eliminated As An Impact Risk to Earth 22 52- Another Large Bright S

Without followup data, many if not most of the Earth approaching objects would be lost as they move away from us leaving us with no idea when they might return to near Earth space or perhaps even strike our home planet.

The 5000th Earth approaching asteroid discovered by the University of Arizona's NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey is approximately 3 times the size of the one which injured 1491 people in Russia in February of 2013. It was discovered by my teammate Jess Johnson. Happily, its closest approach to Earth is slightly farther than our moon.

A small telescope makes a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the celestial visitors to our neighborhood.

For us who look for Earth approaching objects, March of 2014 was a busy month. Six asteroids which pass closer than our Moon were discovered and tracked. The smallest of them is the size of an SUV and the largest would fill an NBA basketball court. Fortunately none of them were on a collision course with Planet Earth.

On a recent training night with Teddy Pruyne at the controls of our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, this duo discovered six new Earth Approaching Objects, an inner main belt asteroid, and rediscovered an inner main belt asteroid which had been lost.

It appears that Hektor and its moon were created by a collision between two icy asteroids early in the 4.5 billion year history of our solar system when things were more chaotic. They happened to land in a gravitational dip which has allowed them to remain relatively undisturbed for billions of years.

On a cold windy night, with clouds frustrating his search, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Alex Gibbs discovered 8 new celestial visitors while observing with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona.

An asteroid spins up and comes apart. When the Earth runs into its trail we will be treated to a meteor shower.

A large fireball meteor which exploded over Cuba produced a number of interesting results.

Only 13 out of the more than 10,000 Earth approaching objects have their orbit completely within that of the Earth.

My Catalina Sky Survey Teammate Brian Africano discovered his 4th comet while asteroid hunting in the constellation of Ursa Major with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona. Observers with small telescopes equipped with electronic cameras are able to track Brian's 4th comet as it comes to near the orbit of Mars before it retreats into the cold dark region of our solar system not to return until 3000 AD.

A prelude of a manned flyby of Venus and Mars could be a manned mission to an asteroid. The search for an appropriate asteroid continues.