- 4119 - COMET NEAR
EARTH? Astronomers discover
'potentially hazardous' asteroid 600 feet wide.
This dangerous space rock was discovered for the first time by an
Artificial Intelligence”, AI
algorithm. August 13, 2023.
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-------------- 4119 - COMET NEAR EARTH?
- The 600-foot-wide asteroid has received the
designation “2022 SF289”, and is expected to approach Earth to within 140,000
miles. That distance is shorter than that between our planet and the moon,
which are on average, 238,855 miles apart. This is close enough to define the
rock as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” (PHA), but that doesn't mean it will
impact Earth in the foreseeable future.
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- This is demonstrating the real-world
effectiveness of this software which will be used to look for thousands of
yet-unknown potentially hazardous asteroids.
Tens of millions of space rocks roam the solar system ranging from
asteroids the size of a few feet to dwarf planets around the size of the moon.
These space rocks are the remains of material that initially formed the planets
4.5 billion years ago.
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- While most of these objects are located far
from Earth, with the majority of asteroids homed in the main asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter, some have orbits that bring them close to Earth.
Sometimes worryingly close.
-
- Space rocks that come close to Earth are
defined as near-Earth objects (NEOs), and asteroids that venture to within
around 5 million miles of the planet get the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid
(PHA) status.
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- This doesn't mean that they will impact
the planet, though. Just as is the case with 2022 SF289, no currently known PHA
poses an impact risk for at least the next 100 years. Astronomers search for
potentially hazardous asteroids and monitor their orbits just to make sure they
are not heading for a collision with the planet.
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- This new PHA was found when the
asteroid-hunting algorithm was paired with data from the ATLAS survey in
Hawaii. The discovery of “2022 SF289” has shown that “HelioLinc3D” can
spot asteroids with fewer observations than current space rock hunting
techniques allow.
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- Searching for potentially hazardous
asteroids involves taking images of parts of the sky at least four times a
night. When astronomers spot a moving point of light traveling in an
unambiguous straight line across the series of images, they can be quite
certain they have found an asteroid. Further observations are then made to
better constrain the orbit of these space rocks around the sun.
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- This new algorithm softeware can make a
detection from just two images, speeding up the whole process.
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- Around 2,350 PHAs have been discovered thus far, and
though none poses a threat of hitting Earth in the near future, astronomers
aren't quite ready to relax just yet as they know that many more potentially
dangerous space rocks are out there yet to be uncovered.
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- It is estimated that the Vera Rubin
Observatory could uncover as many as 3,000 undiscovered potentially hazardous
asteroids.
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- The Vera C. Rubin Observatory 27-foot-wide
(8.4 meters) mirror and massive 3,200-megapixel camera will revisit locations
in the night sky twice per night rather than the four times a night
observations conducted by current telescopes. The creation of HelioLinc3D is a
code that could find asteroids in Rubin’s dataset even with fewer available
observations.
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- With ATLAS data offered as such a test
subject, HelioLinc3D set about looking for PHAs, and on July 18, 2023, it hit
paydirt, uncovering 2022 SF289. This PHA was spotted by ATLAS on September 19,
2022, while it was 3 million miles from Earth.
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- ATLAS had actually spotted this new PHA
three times over the course of four nights but hadn't spotted it four times in
the same night, meaning current surveys missed it. By putting together
fragments of data from all four nights, HelioLinc3D was able to identify the
PHA.
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- With the position of 2022 SF289
pinpointed, astronomers could then follow up on the discovery with other
telescopes to confirm the PHA's existence.
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- This is just a small taste of what to
expect with the Rubin Observatory in less than two years when HelioLinc3D will
be discovering an object like this every night. It's a preview of the coming era of
data-intensive astronomy. From HelioLinc3D to AI-assisted codes, the next
decade of discovery will be a story of advancement in algorithms as much as in
new, large, telescopes.
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August 13, 2023 COMET
NEAR EARTH? 4119
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Sunday, August 13, 2023 ---------------------------------
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