Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:05:33.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spacewatch preparations for the era of deep all-sky surveys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Robert S. McMillan
Robert S. McMillan
Affiliation:
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Spacewatch Project at the University of Arizona uses a 0.9-meter and a 1.8-meter telescope to search for new Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and make astrometric followup measurements of known ones. Among the presently operational asteroid astrometry programs, Spacewatch is uniquely suited to support discoveries by the planned deep all-sky surveys. The Spacewatch 1.8-meter telescope is the largest in the world that is used exclusively for observations of asteroids and comets. Since 2003 January 1, Spacewatch has made ~2400 separate-night detections (discoveries plus followup) of NEOs with absolute magnitude H≤ 22, including 117 fresh discoveries of NEOs with H≤22 and ~900 separate-night detections of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). Objects have been recovered at V=23 and at elongations less than 60 degrees from the Sun. Spacewatch followup observations have contributed to the removal of 137 objects from JPL's impact risk website. Examples of notable recoveries by Spacewatch include the extension of orbital arcs from one month to multi-opposition orbits, and a successful targeted search for a large PHA (1990 SM) with 80 degrees of uncertainty. Spacewatch has been making as many observations of PHAs with H≤22 and V>21 as all other followup stations combined. Followup of NEOs while they are not near Earth provides better leverage on orbital elements and will be well suited to follow up some of the discoveries by the larger-scale, deeper sky surveys: both ground- and space-based. Spacewatch is collaborating with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PS) of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. Each lunation, Spacewatch sends its listings of point sources detected in survey images for PS's moving object detection team to test their software. Spacewatch is also prepared to follow up objects of special interest, fast motion, or less than three nights of observations by PS itself. Spacewatch's current equipment is only a few years old, but there is still room to improve limiting magnitude & time efficiency.

Keywords

Telescopescatalogssurveyastrometrydiscoveries
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S236: Near Earth Objects, our Celestial Neighbors: Opportunity and Risk , August 2006 , pp. 329 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

Bertin, E. & Arnouts, S. 1996, A&AS 117, 393Google Scholar
Bottke, W. F., Durda, D. D., Nesvorný, D., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Vokrouhlický, D. & Levison, H. F. 2005a, Icarus 179, 63Google Scholar
Bottke, W. F., Durda, D. D., Nesvorný, D., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Vokrouhlický, D. & Levison, H. F. 2005b, Icarus 175, 111CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bottke, W. F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H. F., Michel, P. & Metcalfe, T. 2002, Icarus 156, 399CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gehrels, T. 1991, Space Sci. Rev. 58, 347Google Scholar
Gehrels, T., Marsden, B. G., McMillan, R. S. & Scotti, J. V. 1986, Astron. J. 91, 1242CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jedicke, R. 1996, Astron. J. 111, 970CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jedicke, R. & Herron, J. D. 1997, Icarus 127, 494Google Scholar
Jedicke, R. & Metcalfe, T. S. 1998, Icarus 131, 245CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jedicke, R. et al. , 2005a, BAAS 37, 637Google Scholar
Jedicke, R. et al. , 2005b, BAAS 37, 1363Google Scholar
Kaiser, N. et al. , 2005, BAAS 37, 1409Google Scholar
Larsen, J. A. et al. , 2001, Astron. J. 121, 562CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, J. A. et al. , 2005, BAAS 37, No. 4, abstract 4.09: http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v37n4/aas207/1500.htm.Google Scholar
Larsen, J. A. et al. , 2006a, The search for distant objects in the solar system using Spacewatch, submittedGoogle Scholar
Larsen, J. A. et al. , 2006b, The absolute magnitude distribution of near-Earth asteroids from the Spacewatch Survey (approximate title), in preparationGoogle Scholar
McMillan, R. S. 1999a, Paper presented at the Space Resources Utilization Roundtable at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO: LPI Contrib. No. 988 and http://www.mines.edu/research/srr/first_srr.html.Google Scholar
McMillan, R. S. 1999b, Space Manufacturing 12: Challenges and Opportunities in Space: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Space Studies Institute's Princeton Conference on Space Manufacturing, May 6-9, 1999,Greber, B., Ed. (SSI Publishing, Princeton, NJ), 72–75.Google Scholar
McMillan, R. S., Block, M. & Descour, A. S. 2005, The ALPO Minor Planet Bulletin 32, 53: http://www.minorplanetobserver.com/mpb/MPB%2032-3.pdf.Google Scholar
McMillan, R. S. et al. , 1998m BAAS 30, 1114: http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v30n3/dps98/176.htm.Google Scholar
McMillan, R. S., Gehrels, T., Scotti, J. V. & Frecker, J. E. 1986, In Instrumentation in Astronomy VI: Proc. S.P.I.E. 627 (Crawford, D.L., Ed.), 141CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMillan, R. S., Perry, M. L., Bressi, T. H., Montani, J. L., Tubbiolo, A. F. & Read, M. T. 2000, BAAS 32, 1042: http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v32n3/dps2000/8.htm.Google Scholar
McMillan, R. S. & Stoll, C. P. 1982, Proc. SPIE 331, Instrumentation in Astronomy IV, 104Google Scholar
Mink, D. J. 2002, ASP-CS Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XI, 281, 169Google Scholar
Monet, D. B. A. et al. , 1998, The USNO-A2.0 Catalogue. VizieR Online Data Catalog: I, 252.Google Scholar
Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Bottke, W. F., Michel, P. & Tedesco, E. F. 2002, Icarus 158, 329Google Scholar
Ostro, S. J. et al. , 2003, Icarus 166, 271Google Scholar
Pence, W. 1999, CFITSIO, v2.0: A new full-featured data interface. ASP-CS Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems VIII, 172, 487Google Scholar
Perry, M. L., Bressi, T. H., McMillan, R. S., Tubbiolo, A. F. & Barr, L. D. 1998, Proc. SPIE 3351, Telescope Control Systems III, 450-465: http://bookstore.spie.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=detailpaper&cachedsearch=1&productid=308809&producttype=pdf&CFID=1982426&CFTOKEN=46151179Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, D. L. 1991, Astron. J. 101, 1518Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, D. L. 1993, Astrophys. J. 407, 412Google Scholar
Roe, E. A.Larsen, J. A. & the Spacewatch Team 2005, BAAS 37, #4, abstract 4.07: http://www.aas.org/\lb2publications/baas/v37n4/aas207/308.htm.Google Scholar
Scotti, J. V. 1994, in Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors 1993, Milani, A. et al. eds., Kluwer, 17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, J. S. 2001, Science 294, 1691Google Scholar