Questions tagged [asteroids]
Questions regarding relatively small rocky bodies in an orbit around the Sun.
331
questions
14
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How did asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 get its "face"? Is it reconstructed from optical or radar imaging, or something else?
(Image sources linked below)
NPR's March 10, 2023 Newly found asteroid has a 'very small chance' of hitting Earth, NASA says includes an image of what looks like a computer reconstructed 3D surface of ...
- 31k
1
vote
1
answer
73
views
How to get the name of an asteroid if I have it's RA - dec position at a particular time?
I have the RA - Dec position of a potential asteroid and the time at which it was taken. Is it possible to use this information to get more information about this asteroid, like its name, orbital ...
- 123
6
votes
1
answer
3k
views
How fast would a one mile asteroid have to go for it to match the impact that killed the dinosaurs?
I was playing a silly asteroid game and had a question in my head: how fast would a mile long meteor have to go to match the impact of the Chicxulub impact? (The impact that killed the dinosaurs.)
6
votes
2
answers
133
views
A silicate asteroid hits the Moon at 35 km/s. What portion of the ejecta generated reaches lunar escape velocity?
Background:
Below is a graph from John D. O'Keefe's and Thomas J. Ahrens's Impact and Explosion Crater Ejecta, Fragment Size, and Velocity. Said graph models the amount of ejecta produced by silicate ...
- 257
16
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is it possible that the Rosetta orbiter moved the comet when it crashed?
Rosetta Comet Orbiter (RCO) crashed into the surface of a comet after the comet passed near Jupiter, which would be out-of-range for its antenna to communicate with Earth. So, the ESA made the ...
- 552
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Was Theia a planet or an asteroid?
According to an article Theia (from the Giant impact hypothesis) was an asteroid and according to The Wikipedia article about Theia Theia was an Earth trojan (which is an asteroid). Which is dubious, ...
user47732
4
votes
1
answer
90
views
"To date we have covered 624 square degrees of sky near to and interior to the orbit of Venus" meaning wrt Asteroid survey Interior to Earth and Venus
CNN's October 31, 2022 ‘Planet killer’ asteroid spotted hiding in the sun’s glare links to Sheppard et al. (2022) A Deep and Wide Twilight Survey for Asteroids Interior to Earth and Venus. The ...
- 31k
8
votes
3
answers
306
views
How do we know that ice from the S1094b event was from Mars surface and not from the impactor?
The recent news story NASA’s InSight Lander Detects Stunning Meteoroid Impact on Mars, about an impact that occurred on Mars on December 24, 2021 (event S1094b), shows a picture of the impact crater, ...
- 1,597
5
votes
0
answers
82
views
Which citizen science occultation experiences were done in the late 80's in the US? With what results?
The news story "A star eclipsed by an asteroid in France this week-end: how and why scientists ask you to observe it" (in French) relates how people were are asked to look at the occultation ...
- 1,597
3
votes
0
answers
42
views
What does "Secondary reflection from Didymos may allow imaging of the night side of Dimorphos" mean? Why useful? Imaged from where?
@ConnorGarcia's "impactful" answer to Why did they decide to hit Dimorphos in the retrograde direction rather than prograde; was it a "coin-toss" or were there implications for ...
- 31k
4
votes
0
answers
76
views
First satellite of an asteroid (or double asteroid) ever imaged by delay-Doppler radar?
In comments about my previous bounty on the Space SE question Which deep-space spacecraft flew closest by Earth during a gravitational assist?, I started to look at the Galileo mission and ran across ...
- 31k
29
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Why did they decide to hit Dimorphos in the retrograde direction rather than prograde; was it a "coin-toss" or were there implications for observing?
CNN Space and Defense Correspondent Kristin Fisher does a really good job of summarizing the current state of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test early observational results for general public ...
- 31k
6
votes
1
answer
50
views
Other than Lomb-Scargle Periodograms and String Length Minimization, what other methods can be used to find the period of unevenly spaced data?
I'm doing some research into how different methods of finding the period with unevenly spaced data compare with each other. So far, I've looked at the Lomb-Scargle and String-Length Minimization. I ...
- 323
9
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Did the temporary asteroid name DA₄₂ arise naturally and fortuitously (as a precursor to a Douglas Adams namesake)? Or did someone help it along?
42 (Number) just might be the longest Wikipedia page for a single number integer.
In the Astronomy subsection of that article it says:
In January 2004, asteroid 2001 DA42 was given the permanent name ...
- 31k
4
votes
1
answer
54
views
The Interpretation of Uncertainty Map of NEO in Minor Planet Center page
I am an observational astronomer. I have just started with the observations. If any of you use MinorPlanetCenter website to get the ephemeris of a possible NEO in the NEO confirmation page, there is ...
5
votes
4
answers
212
views
If two fast asteroids collided, would the temperature and pressure be high enough to cause nuclear fusion?
Some near earth objects travel with speeds of dozens of kilometers per second. Would a head-on collision between two of them create suitable conditions for nuclear fusion?
- 1,564
6
votes
1
answer
93
views
Do solar flares have a noticeable effect on asteroid orbits?
I've read that in advanced trajectory calculations, sunlight is even taken into account. Does this also apply to transient events like solar flares?
- 1,564
2
votes
1
answer
173
views
absolute magnitude of an asteroid
I've done some research and found that one could derive the absolute magnitude $H$ of an asteroid in the following way. $H$ is the brightness of the asteroid, observed on Earth, if the asteroid were ...
- 727
2
votes
0
answers
107
views
creating asteroid light curves and analysing them
I came across the video Tutorial: Creating a Lightcurve of a Minor Planet linked below by Tycho Tracker, which itself is a software to build an asteroid light curve from raw images and analyse it to ...
- 727
2
votes
1
answer
83
views
Are asteroids 2012 PM35 and 2020 OG106 aliases?
As a sequel to my asteroid's conjunctions search, I found those two bodies
having very similar Kepler orbital elements and being so extremely close that they might be duplicates in JPL's database.
<...
- 399
1
vote
1
answer
93
views
following several unknown phenomena detected at the edge of the solar system, is there a 5th force which acts at the edge of the solar system?
following several unknown phenomena detected as the acceleration of Oumuamua and electrons and strange data sent by traveler 1 at the edge of the solar system, is there a 5th force which acts at the ...
- 41
0
votes
1
answer
213
views
is an asteroid impact the same as an atom bomb [closed]
Pretty much what it says on the tin. Would an asteroid like say, the one that killed the dinosaurs be like a massive atomic bomb? With the eyes melting, bodies burnt to a crisp, leaving only shadows ...
13
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Why are asteroids so much richer in precious metals than Earth's crust?
Did the majority of Earth's precious metals sink below the crust during Earth's formation?
- 1,698
3
votes
1
answer
115
views
calculating MPC orbital uncertainty parameter U
I'm trying to understand how the orbital uncertainty parameter 'U' introduced by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) is actually calculated for minor bodies. This wikipedia page gives the formulae to be ...
- 727
4
votes
1
answer
158
views
Why are what end up being meteorites not in stable orbit as planets and large asteroids are?
We don't have to worry about Mars, etc. hitting Earth. Is it that, being smaller, small asteroids have less inertia and so are more affected by, I guess, the gravity of various planets?
- 141
1
vote
1
answer
183
views
How much energy to shorten a synodic month by about 1.56%?
Suppose the moon underwent a single, massive, large-object bombardment event. About what number (or range) of about what mean mass of objects could shorten the synodic month by about 1.5633%?
(Assume ...
4
votes
2
answers
242
views
With only seemingly two measurements 30 minutes apart, how were astronomers able to determine that asteroid 2022 EB5's trajectory intersected Earth?
Earthsky.org's Asteroid discovered hours before Earth impact begins
Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky at the Piszkésteto Mountain Station – part of Konkoly Observatory near Budapest – ...
- 31k
0
votes
3
answers
4k
views
What if the Earth was hit by a small asteroid having close to the speed of light?
If the Earth was hit by an asteroid having diameter of about 5 km and moving with a speed close to the speed of light? What would happen?
Would it instantly evaporate? Could it make the Earth ...
- 226
18
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How is asteroidal rock formed?
So when planets form, dust from the protoplanetary nebula gets collected by gravity and then heated and reformed under pressure until it forms dense masses of stuff which we call rock.
However, ...
- 405
1
vote
3
answers
345
views
Calculating the luminosity of a comet
Assuming a 9-km comet is heading towards the Earth and it is at distance 5.2 AU away from the Sun, what is its luminosity? Assume that it has an albedo of 0.5?
For now, I have calculated the Sun's ...
- 21
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Will 3,600ft asteroid be visible at my location tonight?
According to NASA, a 1.1-kilometer asteroid called 7482 (1994 PC1) will be visible tonight at 5:50PM.
How do I know if this asteroid will be visible at my location with the naked eye? When NASA says 5:...
- 401
5
votes
0
answers
88
views
How do the giant planets excite the orbits of asteroids?
The giant planets, particularly Jupiter, are notorious for bringing about changes in eccentricities and inclinations of smaller bodies(asteroids and KBOs). Jupiter, in fact, throws almost all the ...
- 631
1
vote
0
answers
58
views
Power law of object mass in Milky way
Red dwarfs are more common than larger stars. Does this trend continue to smaller objects? If you take every "condensed object" from dust grains through asteroids, planets, and stars in the ...
- 782
1
vote
1
answer
55
views
How many asteroids were discovered via GAIA? Is there a list?
The ESA Science & Technology video Gaia's asteroid discoveries shows trajectories for hundreds of asteroids that were seen by GAIA, but as far as I can deduce from the extensive notes there, only ...
- 31k
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Asteroids in polar orbits?
I'm conducting research on solar system dynamics, and found a list of asteroids in retrograde orbits, but none about the ones orbiting perpendicular to the ecliptic plane. Are there any detailed lists ...
- 6,484
1
vote
1
answer
63
views
Half life of retrograde asteroids?
How common are asteroids that orbit retrograde with respect to the motion of all other bodies? How stable are said orbits in the Solar System, and where can we find most of them?
I presume that there ...
- 6,484
4
votes
1
answer
73
views
Are there any Hubble images of Polymele available?
Lucy is a spacecraft that will visit trojan asteroids, among which there is the asteroid Polymele. Before doing an occultation observing campaign for the asteroid Polymele in October 2021, the Lucy ...
- 17.2k
-4
votes
1
answer
111
views
Nature of faculae on Ceres? Do they glow in the dark?
It looks like the faculae on Ceres glow in the dark, although the scientific community has decided it's brine. [What an imbecile idea, BTW!]
Would it be possible to photograph the dwarf planet and the ...
- 121
4
votes
1
answer
294
views
Why haven't we had an "asteroid attack" until now?
We know that there is a big and dense ring of asteroids between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars and also "Trojans" and "Greeks" in Jupiter's orbit too. We also know that
there are ...
- 71
2
votes
1
answer
103
views
What is the nature of the "blind spot issue" in asteroid detection systems?
From Wikipedia's "Asteroid impact prediction" article:
Performance is improving in detecting smaller objects as existing systems are upgraded and new ones come on line, but the blind spot ...
- 123
6
votes
1
answer
108
views
How could a captured asteroid enter a circularized orbit?
Ok, the simple answer would be through gravity assists from moons, taking a ballistic capture orbit into a circular orbit. I am wondering the chances of a ballistic orbit becoming a stable (on the ...
- 6,484
11
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Can earth grazers skip on the atmosphere more than once?
Earth grazing fireballs are asteroids that enter the atmosphere at a low angle, and skip off it, leaving to space again. Would it be possible that they skip more than once and still leave the ...
- 1,564
1
vote
0
answers
30
views
Curated dataset of labelled images for NEO detection
I am looking for a dataset of images. Some images should contain NEO's (1 or more), others should not. With the dataset, there should also be an accompanying file, of which should contain 'labels'. ...
- 171
4
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What will happen to a metal asteroid if it impacts the Earth? Will it disintegrate or will it stay intact?
I recently read about the Psyche asteroid which is mostly metal. It got me wondering: what if a metal asteroid (not the size of Psyche - maybe about 1 mile long and 1 mile wide) impacted the Earth's ...
- 41
0
votes
0
answers
38
views
Density and Velocity profiles of a self gravitating explosion
Suppose an asteroid explodes, into a spherically symmetrical cloud, of radius R, mass M, and surface receding velocity V (normal to the edge of the cloud), initially the density is radially uniform.
...
- 43
6
votes
1
answer
106
views
What image analysis approaches/algorithms are used to detect near-Earth objects?
Disclaimer: I am not an astronomer or astrophysicist. I'm a computer scientist.
Astronomers collect vast amounts of image data through astronmical surveys.
The data is then analysed for signs of ...
- 171
10
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How many iridium layers do we know, besides the K-Pg one (the dinosaur killer "smoking gun")?
The hypothesis of a large asteroid impact playing a role in dinosaurs extinction was strengthened by the discovery of a global iridium anomaly in the geologic record, at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg)...
- 1,069
1
vote
0
answers
43
views
How does the rock Simurgh Saxum (-25.32°, 4.05°) on 101955 Bennu define its prime meridian and serve as the basis for its coordinate system?
Spaceref's NASA's "Tour of Asteroid Bennu" Selected for Prestigious Computer Graphics Film Festival says:
It's hard to imagine what the surface of asteroid Bennu might look like - it's ...
- 31k
3
votes
1
answer
151
views
How was a rock on the surface of asteroid 101955 Bennu first observed from Earth (Benben Saxum)?
Spaceref's NASA's "Tour of Asteroid Bennu" Selected for Prestigious Computer Graphics Film Festival says:
It's hard to imagine what the surface of asteroid Bennu might look like - it's ...
- 31k
4
votes
2
answers
159
views
Uncertainities of orbital elements queried from JPL Horizons
I'm trying to retrieve the orbital elements' uncertainities for asteroids queried from NASA JPL Horizons. However I'm not able to find them in the query fields returned in python. Nor am I able to ...
- 727