Near Earth Object Overview
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Cross-References ASTEROID IMPACT Definition and Introduction History of Impact Cratering Studies
18 ASTEROID IMPACT Tedesco, E. F., Noah, P. V., Noah, M., and Price, S. D., 2002. The identification and confirmation of impact structures on supplemental IRAS minor planet survey. The Astronomical Earth were developed: (a) crater morphology, (b) geo- 123 – Journal, , 1056 1085. physical anomalies, (c) evidence for shock metamor- Tholen, D. J., and Barucci, M. A., 1989. Asteroid taxonomy. In Binzel, R. P., Gehrels, T., and Matthews, M. S. (eds.), phism, and (d) the presence of meteorites or geochemical Asteroids II. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 298–315. evidence for traces of the meteoritic projectile – of which Yeomans, D., and Baalke, R., 2009. Near Earth Object Program. only (c) and (d) can provide confirming evidence. Remote Available from World Wide Web: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ sensing, including morphological observations, as well programs. as geophysical studies, cannot provide confirming evi- dence – which requires the study of actual rock samples. Cross-references Impacts influenced the geological and biological evolu- tion of our own planet; the best known example is the link Albedo between the 200-km-diameter Chicxulub impact structure Asteroid Impact Asteroid Impact Mitigation in Mexico and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Under- Asteroid Impact Prediction standing impact structures, their formation processes, Torino Scale and their consequences should be of interest not only to Earth and planetary scientists, but also to society in general. ASTEROID IMPACT History of impact cratering studies In the geological sciences, it has only recently been recog- Christian Koeberl nized how important the process of impact cratering is on Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria a planetary scale. -
The Impact and Recovery of Asteroid 2008 TC3 P
Vol 458 | 26 March 2009 | doi:10.1038/nature07920 LETTERS The impact and recovery of asteroid 2008 TC3 P. Jenniskens1, M. H. Shaddad2, D. Numan2, S. Elsir3, A. M. Kudoda2, M. E. Zolensky4,L.Le4,5, G. A. Robinson4,5, J. M. Friedrich6,7, D. Rumble8, A. Steele8, S. R. Chesley9, A. Fitzsimmons10, S. Duddy10, H. H. Hsieh10, G. Ramsay11, P. G. Brown12, W. N. Edwards12, E. Tagliaferri13, M. B. Boslough14, R. E. Spalding14, R. Dantowitz15, M. Kozubal15, P. Pravec16, J. Borovicka16, Z. Charvat17, J. Vaubaillon18, J. Kuiper19, J. Albers1, J. L. Bishop1, R. L. Mancinelli1, S. A. Sandford20, S. N. Milam20, M. Nuevo20 & S. P. Worden20 In the absence of a firm link between individual meteorites and magnitude H 5 30.9 6 0.1 (using a phase angle slope parameter their asteroidal parent bodies, asteroids are typically characterized G 5 0.15). This is a measure of the asteroid’s size. only by their light reflection properties, and grouped accordingly Eyewitnesses in Wadi Halfa and at Station 6 (a train station between into classes1–3. On 6 October 2008, a small asteroid was discovered Wadi Halfa and Al Khurtum, Sudan) in the Nubian Desert described a with a flat reflectance spectrum in the 554–995 nm wavelength rocket-like fireball with an abrupt ending. Sensors aboard US govern- range, and designated 2008 TC3 (refs 4–6). It subsequently hit the ment satellites first detected the bolide at 65 km altitude at Earth. Because it exploded at 37 km altitude, no macroscopic 02:45:40 UTC (ref. 8). The optical signal consisted of three peaks span- fragments were expected to survive. -
Using a Nuclear Explosive Device for Planetary Defense Against an Incoming Asteroid
Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2019 Exoatmospheric Plowshares: Using a Nuclear Explosive Device for Planetary Defense Against an Incoming Asteroid David A. Koplow Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2197 https://ssrn.com/abstract=3229382 UCLA Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs, Spring 2019, Issue 1, 76. This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Air and Space Law Commons, International Law Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, and the National Security Law Commons EXOATMOSPHERIC PLOWSHARES: USING A NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE DEVICE FOR PLANETARY DEFENSE AGAINST AN INCOMING ASTEROID DavidA. Koplow* "They shall bear their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks" Isaiah 2:4 ABSTRACT What should be done if we suddenly discover a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth? The consequences of an impact could be enormous-scientists believe thatsuch a strike 60 million years ago led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, and something ofsimilar magnitude could happen again. Although no such extraterrestrialthreat now looms on the horizon, astronomers concede that they cannot detect all the potentially hazardous * Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. The author gratefully acknowledges the valuable comments from the following experts, colleagues and friends who reviewed prior drafts of this manuscript: Hope M. Babcock, Michael R. Cannon, Pierce Corden, Thomas Graham, Jr., Henry R. Hertzfeld, Edward M. -
Detecting and Avoiding Killer Asteroids
Target Earth! Detecting and Avoiding Killer Asteroids by Trudy E. Bell (Copyright 2013 Trudy E. Bell) ARTH HAD NO warning. When a mountain- above 2000°C and triggering earthquakes and volcanoes sized asteroid struck at tens of kilometers (miles) around the globe. per second, supersonic shock waves radiated Ocean water suctioned from the shoreline and geysered outward through the planet, shock-heating rocks kilometers up into the air; relentless tsunamis surged e inland. At ground zero, nearly half the asteroid’s kinetic energy instantly turned to heat, vaporizing the projectile and forming a mammoth impact crater within minutes. It also vaporized vast volumes of Earth’s sedimentary rocks, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfur di- oxide into the atmosphere, along with heavy dust from both celestial and terrestrial rock. High-altitude At least 300,000 asteroids larger than 30 meters revolve around the sun in orbits that cross Earth’s. Most are not yet discovered. One may have Earth’s name written on it. What are engineers doing to guard our planet from destruction? winds swiftly spread dust and gases worldwide, blackening skies from equator to poles. For months, profound darkness blanketed the planet and global temperatures dropped, followed by intense warming and torrents of acid rain. From single-celled ocean plank- ton to the land’s grandest trees, pho- tosynthesizing plants died. Herbivores starved to death, as did the carnivores that fed upon them. Within about three years—the time it took for the mingled rock dust from asteroid and Earth to fall out of the atmosphere onto the ground—70 percent of species and entire genera on Earth perished forever in a worldwide mass extinction. -
For Immediate Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ASTRONAUTS, EXPERTS, AND SPACE AGENCIES DISCUSS ASTEROIDS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND RISKS ON ASTEROID DAY, 30 JUNE LUXEMBOURG, 22 June 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Asteroid Foundation returns with Asteroid Day LIVE Digital from Luxembourg. This year, the event is a fully digital celebration of asteroid science and exploration. Panel discussions and one-on-one interviews with astronauts and world experts will be broadcast on 30 June 2020. Each year Asteroid Day presents the public with a snap-shot of cutting-edge asteroid research from the largest telescopes on Earth to some of the most ambitious space missions. Topics of discussion this year include the acceleration in the rate of our asteroid discoveries and why it is set to accelerate even faster, the imminent arrival of samples from asteroid Ryugu and Bennu, the exciting preparations for the joint US-Europe mission to binary asteroid Didymos, and much more. Asteroids are the leftover remnants of the birth of the planets in the Solar System, and many are the shattered fragments of these diminutive proto-planets that never made it to maturity. “Asteroid exploration missions tell us about the birth of our own planet and reveal how asteroids can serve astronauts as stepping stones to Mars,” says Tom Jones, PhD, veteran astronaut and planetary scientist, and Asteroid Day Expert Panel member. Each asteroid is an individual with its own story to tell. And that’s what Asteroid Day is all about: bringing those stories to the widest audience possible. “Space and science have been an endless source of inspiration for SES! This is one of the reasons why we and our partners continue to do extraordinary things in space to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth,” says Ruy Pinto, Chief Technology Officer at SES. -
NASA Ames Jim Arnold, Craig Burkhardt Et Al
The re-entry of artificial meteoroid WT1190F AIAA SciTech 2016 1/5/2016 2008 TC3 Impact October 7, 2008 Mohammad Odeh International Astronomical Center, Abu Dhabi Peter Jenniskens SETI Institute Asteroid Threat Assessment Project (ATAP) - NASA Ames Jim Arnold, Craig Burkhardt et al. Michael Aftosmis - NASA Ames 2 Darrel Robertson - NASA Ames Next TC3 Consortium http://impact.seti.org Mission Statement: Steve Larson (Catalina Sky Survey) “Be prepared for the next 2008 TC3 John Tonry (ATLAS) impact” José Luis Galache (Minor Planet Center) Focus on two aspects: Steve Chesley (NASA JPL) 1. Airborne observations of the reentry Alan Fitzsimmons (Queen’s Univ. Belfast) 2. Rapid recovery of meteorites Eileen Ryan (Magdalena Ridge Obs.) Franck Marchis (SETI Institute) Ron Dantowitz (Clay Center Observatory) Jay Grinstead (NASA Ames Res. Cent.) Peter Jenniskens (SETI Institute - POC) You? 5 NASA/JPL “Sentry” early alert October 3, 2015: WT1190F Davide Farnocchia (NASA/JPL) Catalina Sky Survey: Richard Kowalski Steve Chesley (NASA/JPL) Marco Michelli (ESA NEOO CC) 6 WT1190F Found: October 3, 2015: one more passage Oct. 24 Traced back to: 2013, 2012, 2011, …, 2009 Re-entry: Friday November 13, 2015 10.61 km/s 20.6º angle Bill Gray 11 IAC + UAE Space Agency chartered commercial G450 Mohammad Odeh (IAC, Abu Dhabi) Support: UAE Space Agency Dexter Southfield /Embry-Riddle AU 14 ESA/University Stuttgart 15 SETI Institute 16 Dexter Southfield team Time UAE Camera Trans-Lunar Insertion Stage Leading candidate (1/13/2016): LUNAR PROSPECTOR T.L.I.S. Launch: January 7, 1998 UT Lunar Prospector itself was deliberately crashed on Moon July 31, 1999 Carbon fiber composite Spin hull thrusters Titanium case holds Amonium Thiokol Perchlorate fuel and Star Stage 3700S HTPB binder (both contain H) P.I.: Alan Binder Scott Hubbard 57-minutes later: Mission Director Separation of TLIS NASA Ames http://impact.seti.org 30 . -
Tunguska-1908 and Similar Events in Light of the New Explosive Cosmogony of Minor Bodies
Tunguska-1908 and similar events in light of the New Explosive Cosmogony of minor bodies E.M.Drobyshevski Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 194021 St-Petersburg, Russia E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. It is shown that the well-known Tunguska-1908 phenomenon (TP) problems (the fast transfer of the momentum and of the kinetic energy of the meteoroid W ~ 10-50 Mt TNT to air, with its heating to T > 104 K at an altitude of 5÷10 km, the final turn of the smoothly sloping, δ ≈ 0÷20o to horizon, trajectory of the body through ~10o to the West, the pattern and area of the tree-fall and trees’ scorching by heat radiation, etc.) allow a fairly straightforward solution within the paradigm of New Explosive Cosmogony (NEC) of minor bodies, as opposed to other approaches. The NEC considers the short- period (SP) cometary nuclei, to which the Tunguska meteoroid belonged, to be fragments produced in explosions of massive icy envelopes of Ganymede-type bodies saturated by products of bulk electrolysis of ices to the form of a 2H2+O2 solid solution. The nearly tangent entry into the Earth’s atmosphere with V ~ 20 km/s of such a nucleus, ~200÷500 m in size and ~(5÷50)×1012 g in mass, also saturated by 12 2H2+O2, initiated detonation of its part with a mass of ~10 g at an altitude of 5÷10 km. This resulted in o o deflection of this fraction trajectory by 5 ÷10 , and fast expansion with Vt ≈ 2 km/s of the products of its detonation brought about their fast slowing down by the air, heating of the latter to T > 104 K and a phenomenon of moving high-altitude explosion, with the resultant scorching and fall of trees in a butterfly pattern. -
Planetary Defence Activities Beyond NASA and ESA
Planetary Defence Activities Beyond NASA and ESA Brent W. Barbee 1. Introduction The collision of a significant asteroid or comet with Earth represents a singular natural disaster for a myriad of reasons, including: its extraterrestrial origin; the fact that it is perhaps the only natural disaster that is preventable in many cases, given sufficient preparation and warning; its scope, which ranges from damaging a city to an extinction-level event; and the duality of asteroids and comets themselves---they are grave potential threats, but are also tantalising scientific clues to our ancient past and resources with which we may one day build a prosperous spacefaring future. Accordingly, the problems of developing the means to interact with asteroids and comets for purposes of defence, scientific study, exploration, and resource utilisation have grown in importance over the past several decades. Since the 1980s, more and more asteroids and comets (especially the former) have been discovered, radically changing our picture of the solar system. At the beginning of the year 1980, approximately 9,000 asteroids were known to exist. By the beginning of 2001, that number had risen to approximately 125,000 thanks to the Earth-based telescopic survey efforts of the era, particularly the emergence of modern automated telescopic search systems, pioneered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) LINEAR system in the mid-to-late 1990s.1 Today, in late 2019, about 840,000 asteroids have been discovered,2 with more and more being found every week, month, and year. Of those, approximately 21,400 are categorised as near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), 2,000 of which are categorised as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)3 and 2,749 of which are categorised as potentially accessible.4 The hazards posed to us by asteroids affect people everywhere around the world. -
Graphite-Based Geothermometry on Almahata Sitta Ureilitic Meteorites
minerals Article Graphite-Based Geothermometry on Almahata Sitta Ureilitic Meteorites Anna Barbaro 1,*, M. Chiara Domeneghetti 1, Cyrena A. Goodrich 2, Moreno Meneghetti 3 , Lucio Litti 3, Anna Maria Fioretti 4, Peter Jenniskens 5 , Muawia H. Shaddad 6 and Fabrizio Nestola 7,8 1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy; [email protected] 2 Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, TX 77058, USA; [email protected] 3 Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy; [email protected] (M.M.); [email protected] (L.L.) 4 Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources, National Research Council, 35131 Padova, Italy; anna.fi[email protected] 5 SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; [email protected] 6 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Khartoum, Khartoum 11111, Sudan; [email protected] 7 Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy; [email protected] 8 Geoscience Institute, Goethe-University Frankfurt, 60323 Frankfurt, Germany * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +39-3491548631 Received: 13 October 2020; Accepted: 10 November 2020; Published: 12 November 2020 Abstract: The thermal history of carbon phases, including graphite and diamond, in the ureilite meteorites has implications for the formation, igneous evolution, and impact disruption of their parent body early in the history of the Solar System. Geothermometry data were obtained by micro-Raman spectroscopy on graphite in Almahata Sitta (AhS) ureilites AhS 72, AhS 209b and AhS A135A from the University of Khartoum collection. In these samples, graphite shows G-band peak centers between 1 1578 and 1585 cm− and the full width at half maximum values correspond to a crystallization temperature of 1266 ◦C for graphite for AhS 209b, 1242 ◦C for AhS 72, and 1332 ◦C for AhS A135A. -
Arxiv:1710.07684V1 [Astro-Ph.EP] 20 Oct 2017 Significant Non-Gravitational Perturbations Due to the Effects of Radiation Pressure (Gray, 2015)
The observing campaign on the deep-space debris WT1190F as a test case for short-warning NEO impacts Marco Michelia,b,, Alberto Buzzonic, Detlef Koschnya,d,e, Gerhard Drolshagena,f, Ettore Perozzih,a,g, Olivier Hainauti, Stijn Lemmensj, Giuseppe Altavillac,b, Italo Foppianic, Jaime Nomenk, Noelia Sánchez-Ortizk, Wladimiro Marinellol, Gianpaolo Pizzettil, Andrea Soffiantinil, Siwei Fanm, Carolin Fruehm aESA SSA-NEO Coordination Centre, Largo Galileo Galilei, 1, 00044 Frascati (RM), Italy bINAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati, 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy cINAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Via Gobetti, 93/3, 40129 Bologna (BO), Italy dESTEC, European Space Agency, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands eTechnical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany fSpace Environment Studies - Faculty VI, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany gDeimos Space Romania, Strada Buze¸sti75-77, Bucure¸sti011013, Romania hAgenzia Spaziale Italiana, Via del Politecnico, 1, 00133 Roma (RM), Italy iEuropean Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany jESA Space Debris Office, Robert-Bosch-Straße 5, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany kDeimos Space S.L.U., Ronda de Pte., 19, 28760 Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain lOsservatorio Astronomico “Serafino Zani”, Colle San Bernardo, 25066 Lumezzane Pieve (BS), Italy mSchool of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, 701 W Stadium Ave, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA Abstract On 2015 November 13, the small artificial object designated WT1190F entered the Earth atmosphere above the Indian Ocean offshore Sri Lanka after being discovered as a possible new asteroid only a few weeks earlier. At ESA’s SSA-NEO Coordination Centre we took advantage of this opportunity to organize a ground-based observational campaign, using WT1190F as a test case for a possible similar future event involving a natural asteroidal body. -
Meteoroids: the Smallest Solar System Bodies
Passage of Bolides through the Atmosphere 1 O. Popova Abstract Different fragmentation models are applied to a number of events, including the entry of TC3 2008 asteroid in order to reproduce existing observational data. keywords meteoroid entry · fragmentation · modeling 1 Introduction Fragmentation is a very important phenomenon which occurs during the meteoroid entry into the atmosphere and adds more drastic effects than mere deceleration and ablation. Modeling of bolide 6 fragmentation (100 – 10 kg in mass) may be divided into several approaches. Detail fitting of observational data (deceleration and/or light curves) allows the determination of some meteoroid parameters (ablation and shape-density coefficients, fragmentation points, amount of mass loss) (Ceplecha et al. 1993; Ceplecha and ReVelle 2005). Observational data with high accuracy are needed for the gross-fragmentation model (Ceplecha et al. 1993), which is used for the analysis of European and Desert bolide networks data. Hydrodynamical models, which describe the entry of the meteoroid 6 including evolution of its material, are applied mainly for large bodies (>10 kg) (Boslough et al. 1994; Svetsov et al. 1995; Shuvalov and Artemieva 2002, and others). Numerous papers were devoted to the application of standard equations for large meteoroid entry in the attempts to reproduce dynamics and/or radiation for different bolides and to predict meteorite falls. These modeling efforts are often supplemented by different fragmentation models (Baldwin and Sheaffer, 1971; Borovi6ka et al. 1998; Artemieva and Shuvalov, 2001; Bland and Artemieva, 2006, and others). The fragmentation may occur in different ways. For example, few large fragments are formed. These pieces initially interact through their shock waves and then continue their flight independently. -
Clues and Cautions from Asteroid 2008 Tc3 and the Almahata Sitta Meteorite
Asteroid Science 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2189) 2107.pdf DISTINGUISHING DIFFERENTIATED DARK ASTEROIDS FROM PRIMITIVE DARK ASTEROIDS: CLUES AND CAUTIONS FROM ASTEROID 2008 TC3 AND THE ALMAHATA SITTA METEORITE. C. A. Goodrich1, M.E. Zolensky2, A.M. Fioretti3, M.H. Shaddad4, H. Downes5, T. Hiroi6, I. Kohl7, E.D. Young7, N.T. Kita8, V.E. Hamilton9, M. Riebe10, H. Busemann10, R.J. Macke11, M. Fries2, M. Sanborn12, Q-Z. Yin12, D.K. Ross13, P. Jenniskens14. 1Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, Houston TX 77058 USA ([email protected]); 2ARES, NASA-JSC, Houston TX USA; 3CNR, Padova Italy; 4Univ. Khartoum, Khartoum Sudan; 5Birkbeck Univ. London, London UK; 6Brown Univ., Providence, RI USA; 7UCLA, Los Angeles, CA USA; 8Univ. Wisconsin, Madison, WI USA; 9SwRI, Boulder, CO USA; 10ETH, Zürich Switzerland; 11Specola Vaticana, Vatican City State; 12UC Davis, Davis, CA USA; 13Jacobs-JETS, NASA-JSC, Houston TX USA; 14SETI, Mountain View, CA USA. Introduction: Asteroid 2008 TC3 was the first The First AhS Stones Showing Contacts Be- near-Earth object to be detected and studied in space tween Ureilitic and Chondritic Lithologies: AhS before it hit the Earth [1-6]. More than 700 cm-sized 91A and AhS 671 are friable breccias, dominated vol- (~0.2-400 g) stones were recovered from the predicted umetrically by hydrous CC-like (C1) material which fall area and named the Almahata Sitta (AhS) meteor- encloses rounded to angular clasts (<10 m to 3 mm) ite [7]. AhS is the first meteorite observed to originate of olivine, pyroxenes, plagioclase, graphite, and metal- from a spectrally classified asteroid.