- Discovery Channel Telescope
- 4.2m telescope in Arizona
- Pan-STARRS
--
the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System -- is
an innovative design for a wide-field imaging facility being developed
at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. Four 1.8m
telescopes linked by software.
- Dark Matter
Telescope, also referred to as the LSST
(Large Synoptic Survey Telescope), is a proposed ground-based 8.4m
telescope. NEO detection will piggy-back on the main work of the
telescope.
Primarily Follow-up
There are hundreds of professional and amateur astronomers involved in
the vital task of follow-up observations of NEOs. Here are some found
during
a search of the WWW, in no particular order. Apologies for the
lack
of some of the letter accents.
Suggest a link.
Research & reports
- IAU NEO status sites: "List Of
The Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids" and "PHA
Close Approaches
To The Earth"
- IAU report PHYSICAL
STUDY OF COMETS, MINOR PLANETS AND METEORITES (comprehensive status
report and 0.5Mb
of references!)
NEAR EARTH OBJECTS
DYNAMIC SITE (NEODyS) - University of Pisa, ITALY includes Earth
Impact Possibilities - a list as asteroids that might collide with
Earth. Also AstDyS -
Sormano Astronomical Observatory: Minor Body
Priority List and Small Asteroids
Encounters List
- Skeptical
Inquirer
article by David Morrison
- NASA's Asteroid
and Comet Impact Hazard site:
- NEO FAQs
- The 1995 AIAA
Report includes the following quotes: "If some day in the
future we discover well in advance that an asteroid that is big enough
to cause
a mass extinction is going to hit the Earth, and then we alter the
course
of that asteroid so that it does not hit us, it will be one of the most
important accomplishments in all of human history...If some day an
asteroid does strike the Earth, killing not only the human race but
millions of other species as
well, and we could have prevented it but did not because of indecision,
unbalanced
priorities, imprecise risk definition and incomplete planning, then it
will
be the greatest abdication in all of human history not to use our gift
of
rational intellect and conscience to shepherd our own survival, and
that
of all life on Earth."
- Comments
on the impact hazard, including the Australian situation
- NASA's
NEO research fact page
- NASA's
Spaceguard Report.
- NASA's
planetary science abstract database - huge number of scientific
papers,
including full copies of older papers. Once you find an interesting
article
try the "related articles" search system.
- NASA's History Office Cosmic
Earth Impacts
- NASA HQ library bibliography
on NEOs
- Dr. Odenwald's ASK THE
ASTRONOMER page: Meteors and Comets
- NASA's Orbital
Debris
Research
- Orbit
Visualization Tool Online - an interactive 3D orbit viewer
written in Java, and you can view the orbit of any asteroid or comet.
- Goddard Space Flight Center - Asteroids
and Comets.
- New JPL: SENTRY - An Automatic Near-Earth
Asteroid Collision Monitoring System
- JPL Comet Observation Home Page - detials about observing
the latest comets (thanks Nick
Williams)
- NASA Astrobiology Institute: Great Impact Debates.
- NSS Asteroid Site
- DLR (German
Aerospace Center), Berlin
- Space Frontier Foundation's NEO Page
- IAU Minor
Planet Center.
- NEAR missions to asteroids
Mathilde and Eros > > > [pic] > >
- NEAP
Spacedev Corp prospecting mission.
- Planetary
Science Research Discoveries, Hawaii University "Damage by Impact
the case at Meteor Crater, Arizona" Written by Linda M.V. Martel
- Probability
of collisions with Earth by Calvin J. Hamilton.
- NEO News
article THE IMPACT OF "IMPACT!" by Benny J Peiser (notes about a book
by
Gerrit Verschuur).
- NASA's Stardust
comet sample return mission.
- Mark Elowitz's NEO
page
with info about mining asteroids (Mark is a member of the LINEAR team)
- THE
COMET/ASTEROID IMPACT HAZARD: A SYSTEMS APPROACH - paper by Chapman
and Durda.
- 24 Jun 04: Asteroid Toutatis
to pass near (but will definitely MISS) Earth in late September - The
July/August issue of Sky
&
Space magazine had
some good news for southern hemisphere observers. Asteroid Toutatis
should be bright enough to be seen with binoculars near Alpha Centauri
(one of the Southern Cross "Pointers"), when it makes a "close" fly by
of the Earth late in September (26-30th). Its closest approach is 1.6
million km (about 4 times the distance to
the Moon or 200 Earth diameters) on 29 Sept 2004. Since Toutatis has a
major axis of 4.6km it
would make quite a mess if it ever collides
with Earth. No collision is possible
this time or in coming centuries. No doubt as the encounter
approaches there will be doomsday reports and
misinformation spreading around the internet. Here are some links with
sound information about this object:
Sky & Space has a guide to
observing Toutatis in its Sep/Oct 04 issue.