Travelers In The Night

On a recent training night with Teddy Pruyne at the controls of our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, this duo discovered six new Earth Approaching Objects, an inner main belt asteroid, and rediscovered an inner main belt asteroid which had been lost.

It appears that Hektor and its moon were created by a collision between two icy asteroids early in the 4.5 billion year history of our solar system when things were more chaotic. They happened to land in a gravitational dip which has allowed them to remain relatively undisturbed for billions of years.

On a cold windy night, with clouds frustrating his search, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Alex Gibbs discovered 8 new celestial visitors while observing with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona.

An asteroid spins up and comes apart. When the Earth runs into its trail we will be treated to a meteor shower.

A large fireball meteor which exploded over Cuba produced a number of interesting results.

Only 13 out of the more than 10,000 Earth approaching objects have their orbit completely within that of the Earth.

My Catalina Sky Survey Teammate Brian Africano discovered his 4th comet while asteroid hunting in the constellation of Ursa Major with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona. Observers with small telescopes equipped with electronic cameras are able to track Brian's 4th comet as it comes to near the orbit of Mars before it retreats into the cold dark region of our solar system not to return...

A prelude of a manned flyby of Venus and Mars could be a manned mission to an asteroid. The search for an appropriate asteroid continues.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART for short will test methods to make a dangerous asteroid miss Earth.

Friday the 13th of 2029 will be a lucky day for the Human race when the asteroid passes very near the Earth.

My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Groeller was asteroid hunting with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona when he discovered his first comet. After the Sun bakes out all of the frozen gasses, Hannes's Comet, will lose its coma and tail and become indistinguishable from one of the millions of main belt asteroids orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Approximately 1 out of 5 large Near-Earth Asteroids are really double or triple systems of objects orbiting a common center of gravity. Such double trouble objects presents a challenge if one of them were found to be heading for Earth.

A tiny space rock passes through the cloud of communications satellites surrounding the Earth.

Occasionally one observes a meteor brighter than the Planet Venus which is called a fireball. Some of them can be bright enough to be seen in the day time. Every year, several thousand fireballs are logged by the American Meteor Society. If you see one your report will be welcomed.

The object which the 2.3 mile diameter Gault hit is likely to have been a third of a mile diameter space rock. This celestial crash left Gault with a 250,000 long straight tail.

The Earth is our home. It provides us with air, food, and water. The Sun powers all life. The role of Jupiter is less clear. Jupiter puts some objects on a collision course with our planet but not so frequently enough to prevent life on Earth from recovering and adapting. Perhaps an asteroid impact is why we are here.

Asteroid 2013 TV135 is a potentially hazardous asteroid which at first appeared to be on a collision course with planet Earth. Subsequent observations refined its orbit and reduced its chances of striking us.

The extremely remote chance that a dangerous mountain sized space rock has our number on it is what keeps my team going to our four telescopes in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona.

Many stars, galaxies, and other objects seem to be the same year after year giving us the idea that things are static out there. Every once in a while a new object bursts into view producing a, WOW, "what is that" feeling.

For the first time in history, an asteroid hunting team, the Catalina Sky Survey, has discovered more than 1,000 Earth approaching asteroids in a single year. They are an interesting part of our environment.

The Centaur type asteroid, 2013 JD4, is an interesting object. It takes 41.5 years to orbit the Sun on a path that takes it as close to Earth as we are to the Sun. When its orbit is changed as it passes Jupiter and Saturn it may start making closer approaches to the Sun, release gases, and become a comet.

During Comet C/2018 V4 Africano's last visit to the inner solar system humans were erecting the outer ring at Stonehenge. At the rate human's are changing the Earth's climate who can guess what will be happening on Earth when this comet returns in about 6,000 AD.

2008 TC3 is the first of the two of small asteroids which astronomers have been able to find and track into our atmosphere. Samples of these impacting asteroids provide new insights into our solar system.

Recently, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Growler discovered an Earth approaching asteroid which has a speed consistent with it being ejected from the Moon by the impact of an asteroid or comet long ago. 69 hours after Hannes discovered it, this small space rock passed closer than the communication satellites are from us.

An object is discovered that first appeared to be a huge near Earth asteroid. Subsequent observations show it to be a comet making a single trip through our solar system.