“Catalina Sky Survey”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Catalina Sky Survey (CSS; obs. code: 703) is an astronomical survey to discover comets and asteroids. It is conducted at the Steward Observatory's Catalina Station, located near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States.

CSS focuses on the search for near-Earth objects, in particular on any potentially hazardous asteroid that may pose a threat of impact. Its counterpart in the southern hemisphere was the Siding Spring Survey (SSS), closed in 2013 due to loss of funding. CSS supersedes the photographic Bigelow Sky Survey.

Mission

The NEO Observations Program is a result of a United States 1998 congressional directive to NASA to begin a program to identify 1 kilometre (0.62 mile) or larger objects to around 90 percent confidence level or better. The Catalina Sky Survey, located at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, carries out searches for near-earth objects, NEOs, contributing to the Congressionally mandated goal.

In addition to identifying impact risks, the project also obtains other scientific information, including: improving the known population distribution in the main belt, finding the cometary distribution at larger perihelion distances, determining the distribution of NEOs as a product of collisional history and transport to the inner Solar System, and identifying potential targets for flight projects.

Techniques

The Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) uses two telescopes, a 1.5 meter (60 inch) f/2 telescope on the peak of Mount Lemmon, and a 68 cm (27 inch) f/ 1.7 Schmidt telescope near Mount Bigelow (both in the Tucson, Arizona area). The CSS southern hemisphere counterpart, the Siding Spring Survey (SSS), used a 0.5 meter (20 inch) f/3 Uppsala Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. All sites use identical, thermo-electrically cooled cameras and common software written by the CSS team. The cameras are cooled to approximately −100 °C (−148 °F) so their dark current is about 1 electron per hour. These 4096×4096 pixel cameras provide a field of view of 1 degree square with the 1.5-m telescope and nearly 9 square degrees with the Catalina Schmidt. Nominal exposures are 30 seconds and the 1.5-m can reach objects fainter than 21.5 V in that time.^[1]

CSS typically operates every clear night with the exception of a few nights centered on the full moon. The southern hemispheres' SSS in Australia ended in 2013 after funding was discontinued.^[2]

Discoveries

In 2005, CSS became the most prolific NEO survey surpassing Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) in total number of NEOs and potentially hazardous asteroids discovered each year since. CSS discovered 310 NEOs in 2005, 396 in 2006, 466 in 2007, and in 2008 564 NEOs were found.^[3]

Notable discoveries

List of discovered minor planets

For a complete listing of all minor planets discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey, see the index section in list of minor planets.

CSS/SSS team

The CSS team is headed by Eric Christensen of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona.

SSS

Educational outreach

The CSS has helped with Astronomy Camp showing campers how they detect NEOs. They even played a role in an astrophotography exercise with the 2006 Adult Astronomy Camp ending up with a picture that was featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day.^[14]

See also

References

1. ^{{cite web|url=http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mpml/message/23792|title=Last night at G96 I have very good conditions, high transparency and sub-arcsecond seeing and for at least one NEO candidate at 21.8 V|author=|date=|website=yahoo.com|accessdate=5 April 2018}}
2. ^{{cite news |last1=Safi|first1=Michael |title=Earth at risk after cuts close comet-spotting program, scientists warn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/20/funding-cuts-leave-earth-with-blind-spot-for-potentially-catastrophic-comets |accessdate=25 November 2015 |work=The Guardian |date=20 October 2014}}
3. ^NEO discovery statistics from JPL. Shows the number of asteroids of various types (potentially hazardous, size > 1 km, etc.) that different programs have discovered, by year.
4. ^{{cite web |date=September 15, 2011 |title= 2006 JY26 Earth Impact Risk Summary |publisher=NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office |author=Steve Chesley, Paul Chodas and Don Yeomans |url=http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2006jy26.html |accessdate=2013-05-11}}
5. ^{{cite web|title=Catalina Sky Survey Discovers Space Rock That Could Hit Mars|url=http://uanews.org/node/17415|accessdate=2007-12-22}}
6. ^{{cite web |date=January 9, 2008 |title= 2007 WD5 Mars Collision Effectively Ruled Out - Impact Odds now 1 in 10,000 |publisher=NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office |author=Steve Chesley, Paul Chodas and Don Yeomans |url=http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news156.html |accessdate=2008-01-09}}
7. ^{{cite news|title=Asteroid to Miss Earth Tonight|publisher=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/27/AR2008012701500.html|accessdate=2008-01-28 | date=January 28, 2008}}
8. ^{{cite news|title=Asteroid to be harmless fireball over Earth|publisher=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/10/06/asteroid.fireball/index.html|accessdate=2008-10-07 | date=October 6, 2008}}
9. ^{{Cite journal | title=Asteroid 2012 XE133, a transient companion to Venus |first=Carlos |last=de la Fuente Marcos |last2=de la Fuente Marcos |first2=Raúl |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=432|issue=2|pages=886–893|doi=10.1093/mnras/stt454|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/doi/10.1093/mnras/stt454|arxiv = 1303.3705 |bibcode = 2013MNRAS.432..886D |date=June 2013 }}
10. ^{{cite news|title=The First Discovered Asteroid of 2014 Collides With The Earth|publisher=NASA JPL|url=http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news182a.html | date=April 27, 2014}}
11. ^{{cite journal|title=The trajectory and atmospheric impact of asteroid 2014 AA|first1=Davide|last1=Farnocchia|first2=Steven R.|last2=Chesley|first3=Peter G.|last3=Brown|first4=Paul W.|last4=Chodas|date=August 1, 2016|journal=Icarus |volume=274|issue=|pages=327–333|bibcode=2016Icar..274..327F|doi=10.1016/j.icarus.2016.02.056 |url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103516001354}}
12. ^{{cite journal|title=Homing in for New Year: impact parameters and pre-impact orbital evolution of meteoroid 2014 AA|first1=C.|last1=de la Fuente Marcos|first2=R.|last2=de la Fuente Marcos|first3=P.|last3=Mialle|date=October 13, 2016|journal=Astrophysics and Space Science|volume=361|issue=11|pages=358 (33 pp.)|arxiv=1610.01055|bibcode=2016Ap&SS.361..358D |doi=10.1007/s10509-016-2945-3}}
13. ^{{cite news|title=Tiny Asteroid Discovered Saturday Disintegrates Hours Later Over Southern Africa|work=NASA/JPL|publisher=Jet Propulsion Laboratory|url=https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7148|accessdate=14 Mar 2019}}
14. ^{{cite web|url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060831.html|title=APOD: 2006 August 31 - Extra Galaxies|author=|date=|website=antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov|accessdate=5 April 2018}}