[meteorite-list] Monterey Institute Gets NASA Grant To Study Asteroids

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:20:58 2004
Message-ID: <200307022103.OAA04257_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.californianonline.com/news/stories/20030702/localnews/580059.html

Space objects a threat

County astronomy group gets grant from NASA to study them

By Kaija-Leena Romero
The Californian
July 2, 2003

Massive tsunamis, miles of raging forest fires, a
stratosphere clogged with enough debris to
obscure the sun -- even a relatively small
asteroid striking Earth would wreak enough
havoc to end civilization.

"It's not whether it's going to happen," said
Bruce Weaver, director of Monterey Institute for
Research in Astronomy (MIRA). "The question
is how long it will be (until one hits)."

Fortunately, the answer is likely to be in the
million-year range. With a grant from NASA,
however, MIRA hopes to find out more about
objects hurtling through space that are
potentially dangerous to Earth.

Most of the asteroids roaming outer space have
been swept into various orbits over the past 5
billion years or so, Weaver said, but there are
still thousands out there that move into our own
galaxy.

Fortunately, most asteroids in our solar system
orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Those that come
within the orbit of the Earth or which planetary
movements could bring into the Earth's orbit are
considered "near-Earth objects."

Research on asteroids close to the Earth used to
be almost impossible. The small, fairly dark
chunks of rock or nickel moving at 10 to 20 times
the speed of a bullet didn't lend themselves to
observation.

If the scientist observing an asteroid didn't
determine its orbit almost immediately, the size
of the asteroid could not be determined.

Often, as in the case of an asteroid passing
between Earth and the moon a few years ago,
the observations were in retrospect. Scientists
didn't realize that the asteroid would pass so
close to Earth until after it happened.

Scientist Russell Walker, however, when
working with images from an Air Force
infrared-seeking satellite, found that pictures of
the Milky Way would often accidentally include
images of asteroids that allowed astronomers to
indirectly determine their size.

When compared with previous observations
about their orbits, researchers had a much better
idea of which asteroids were the most dangerous
to Earth.

The grant from NASA will allow MIRA to
continue its work reviewing the infrared images,
and much farther down the line, when many more
asteroids are cataloged, Weaver said, possibly
even divert asteroids from a collision course with
the Earth. The grant is particularly important to
MIRA as the Institute is not funded by a
university or a single source. It runs on a
combination of grants, gifts, and occasional
contracts, such as the NASA grant. Founded 30
years ago in Monterey, MIRA now has both a
main office in Marina and a research observatory
on Chews Ridge in Los Padres National Forest.
Received on Wed 02 Jul 2003 05:03:18 PM PDT