Today is Asteroid Day! At LCOGT We have been observing asteroids since the 2005, back when we only had our 2 flagship, 2-meter class telescopes. Asteroid Day is about sharing global awareness of asteroid impacts. So, we are sharing this movie of the past few nights images of (1566) Icarus, an asteroid which passed 5 million miles from Earth (thats 21 times further than the Moon is away). It made its closet approach to the Earth on 16 June 2015, and is now heading in towards the Sun.
Follow-up Campaign
We have observed and reported over 360 unique Solar System objects so far this year, the vast majority being new Near-Earth Object (NEO) candidates which could pose a threat to the Earth. Rapid-response follow-up from the LCOGT NEO Follow-up Network helped confirm over a hundred of these candidates as previously undiscovered NEOs. The positions and brightnesses of the NEOs measured from the LCOGT data help confirm the type of asteroid (whether they are NEOs or not), help constrain their orbital path around the Sun, the chance for potential, future close-approaches to the Earth, and also help determine the size of the new asteroid. In some cases, continued measurements of an asteroid from the LCOGT Network can measure a repeating change in brightness. This rotation period determination can also help us tell the size of an asteroid and whether it is a loose "rubble pile" which could be more easily disrupted or an object which is rotating much more rapidly and so must be a solid chunk of rock or metal.
Measurements of known NEOs that are due to be observed by the Goldstone or Arecibo planetary radars are also an important part of the LCOGT NEO Follow-up Network's mission. Observations of the precise positions of the NEOs by the LCOGT telescopes are vital for refining the orbit of NEOs, particularly of recent discoveries, allowing the radar dishes to be accurately pointed at the NEO. Determination of a rotation period from the LCOGT observations is also very useful to allow the proper setup of the radar observations and to maximize the very weak signals that the radar receives from the distant NEO.
The LCOGT NEO Follow-up Network is currently tracking a newly discovered object (found on April 19), NEO 2015 HM10, which will be observed at Goldstone 2015 Jul 5-8, and sending regular position updates to the Minor Planet Center and NASA's JPL, allowing a more precise orbit to be computed, and help us to find it in the future.
Future
This effort is being lead by LCOGT staff scientist, Tim Lister. He and Edward Gomez are creating the LCOGT "NEO exchange" for monitoring this NEO work. We are very pleased that Sarah Greenstreet will be joining the NEO team in September 2015. Part of that will include a way for our educational partners to be involved in the excitement of monitoring and even discovering asteroids with our global robotic telescope network.
