Travelers In The Night

In our Milky Way Galaxy alone there are probably 25 billion planets located within the habitable zone of its star where there could be air to breathe and liquid water on its surface. The search is on for advanced civilizations . The search is on for aliens.

Programs 31-60Travelers in The NightProgramsContents 1 31-A Gentle Breakup Of An Asteroid 2 32-A Peanut Shaped Asteroid with a Moon 3 33-A Busy Month in the Earth's Neighborhood 4 34- Number 5000 5 35-An Asteroid With A Ring 6 36- Earth and Moon as Evening Stars 7 37-Slow Movers At The Edge of Our Solar System 8 38-The Big Ones 9 39-Dash Cams and the Anatomy of An Airburst 10 40-Itokawa A Strange Space Peanut 11 41-Navigating The Night Sky 12 42-Astronauts Reveal Sobering Data On Asteroid Impacts 13 43-First Earth-Size Planet in 'Habitable Zone' 14 44-A Unique Metal World; Asteroid Psyche 15 45-A World Full of Holes 16 46-How Far Is Forever 17 47-Earth Approaching Space Rocks Collected Over 6 Nights 18 48-Large Dangerous Asteroids Still Appear Suddenly Without Warning 19 49-Earth Approaching Wannabees 20 50-Asteroid 2014 JO25: What An Incredible Ride 21 51-Asteroid 2007 VK184 - Eliminated As An Impact Risk to Earth 22 52- Another Large Bright S

Without followup data, many if not most of the Earth approaching objects would be lost as they move away from us leaving us with no idea when they might return to near Earth space or perhaps even strike our home planet.

The 5000th Earth approaching asteroid discovered by the University of Arizona's NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey is approximately 3 times the size of the one which injured 1491 people in Russia in February of 2013. It was discovered by my teammate Jess Johnson. Happily, its closest approach to Earth is slightly farther than our moon.

A small telescope makes a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the celestial visitors to our neighborhood.

For us who look for Earth approaching objects, March of 2014 was a busy month. Six asteroids which pass closer than our Moon were discovered and tracked. The smallest of them is the size of an SUV and the largest would fill an NBA basketball court. Fortunately none of them were on a collision course with Planet Earth.

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 until 3000 AD.

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.