…and speaking of negative, overhyped asteroids: the object 2024 YR4 will likely NOT cause a catastrophe. Firstly, the odds were never good to begin with: as of this past week, December 2032 impact odds were ~1.5-2 percent. Which is to… Read More »No, 2024 YR4 will NOT kill you
Astronomy & Astrophysics for Jan (vol 693) still says “in progress”- surely a misprint, since Feb is already (partly) up. Oh well, here’s what’s “in progress”: Bourdelle de Micas, J. Perna, D. Fornasier, S. et al. Spectral and photometric characterization… Read More »Note, Paper: Ast & Act
Just announced last week- this year will have two international meetings on planetary defense against impactors. The Japanese space agency (JAXA) is coordinating a meeting, Feb. 27-28. This is in conjunction with the Japan Spaceguard organization, and overlapping (the first… Read More »2025 Planetary Defense Meeting- OTHER Meeting
There’s a briefing on our last (known!) mini-moon (“Temporarily-Captured Flyby”, or TCF), 2024 PT5, in Astrophysical Journal Letters for January 10 (volume 978, issue 2): Bolin, B. Denneau, L. Abron, L-M. The Discovery and Characterization of Minimoon 2024 PT5 L37 … Read More »Note, Paper: Import Report
… see also Part 1 of the Meeting … Wednesday, January 8, 2025, 10:00 AM Mission Updates: Part 110:00 AM Patrick Michel, Hera – ESA10:10 AM Michael Kueppers, Comet Interceptor — ESA10:20 AM Javier Licandro, NEOMIR — ESA10:30 AM Kelsi Singer,… Read More »32nd SBAG, Jan 2025 pt. 2
It’s been too long since I’ve written on the Vera Rubin Observatory, and there’s progress to be seen- dynamic progress. The glass is on the telescope, and a camera too, but it’s the ComCam (Commissioning Camera), an under-populated version of… Read More »Vera Rubin Obs. Update Dec. 11 2024
I wrote previously (twice) on the Japanese COIAS Program (Come On! Impacting ASteroids) and its connection to the manga/TV show Asteroid in Love (Koisuru Asteroido in Japanese, abbreviated Koi As). Now I write again, courtesy of the IAU’s Working Group, Small… Read More »…COIAS Continued…
Nothing new for anyone who already works in NEOs, but… here’s a nice overview paper. In the latest issue of Remote Sensing (vol. 16, issue 22, November #2): Espartero, F. Cubas, J. Nespral, D. et al. New Astronomical Observatory Design… Read More »Note, Paper: Get A Sense Of All Them
From the EU-ESA Workshop on Size Determination of Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Objects: Wednesday, 11/13/24 ( … see also Monday and Tuesday) Polarimetric observations Double Trouble: Polarimetric Insights into the Didymos- Dimorphos post-DART Evolution Zuri GrayOn September 26, 2022, the NASA DART… Read More »Workshop: Size Determination of Potentially Hazardous NEOs pt. III
The EU-ESA Workshop on Size Determination of Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Objects continues. For Tuesday, 11/12/24, we continued phase curves, but after that it was thermal infrared observations and polarimetry: https://indico.esa.int/event/530/contributions/ Absolute magnitudes and photometry from the MPC catalog Peter Vereš (Minor… Read More »Workshop: Size Determination of Potentially Hazardous NEOs pt. II