[meteorite-list] Planetary Society Marks 10th Anniversary of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Plummet into Jupiter with Funding for New NEO Research

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jul 14 20:47:58 2004
Message-ID: <200407150044.RAA28611_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.planetary.org/news/2004/shoemaker-grants0714.html
    
Planetary Society Marks 10th Anniversary of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's
Plummet into Jupiter with Funding for New NEO Research

by Susan Lendroth
The Planetary Society
July 14 , 2004

Ten years ago the fragmented Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter
in a series of tremendous impacts, the first piece striking on July 16,
1994. The Planetary Society is marking that catastrophic anniversary
with a call to asteroid researchers to submit new proposals for the
Society's Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grants, named in honor of
Gene Shoemaker, who, with his wife Carolyn and David Levy, discovered
the infamous comet.

"Shoemaker-Levy 9 visibly reminded us that catastrophic impacts happen
in our Solar System, and they can happen anytime," said Planetary
Society Director of Projects Bruce Betts. "It is a small probability
threat, but one with potentially dire consequences. This is one of the
few natural disasters we can prevent but only if we invest the time and
money."

Earth travels through a swarm of near-Earth objects (NEOs) - comets and
asteroids - of various sizes and orbits, the impacts of which have
shaped the evolution of all planets in our solar system. Scientists
have only recently begun to understand the significant contribution NEOs
have made to the evolution of Earth and to life on our planet.

NEOs have collided with Earth in the past just as Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
collided with Jupiter, violently releasing enormous amounts of energy.
Many scientists believe an impact off the north coast of Mexico's
Yucatan Peninsula led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Just 10 years
ago, Earth watched the bombardment of another planet, demonstrating that
the threat posed by objects hurtling through our solar system is not a
relic of the past.

After his death in 1997, The Planetary Society named its NEO Grant
program for Gene Shoemaker. Shoemaker was a leader in the study of
impact structures and an advocate for NEO discovery and tracking programs.
The grants are awarded to amateur observers, observers in developing
countries, and professional astronomers who, with seed funding, can
greatly increase their programs' contributions to this critical research.

David Levy said, "Through encouraging observers to search for and do
research on asteroids and comets, the Gene Shoemaker Near-Earth Object
grants help contribute to our understanding the role that these objects
have played in the evolution of the solar system."

Shoemaker grant winners have been highly productive in NEO studies.
Many are continuously doing follow-up observations of objects discovered
by larger asteroid survey programs so that accurate orbits can be
determined. For example, Roy Tucker, a 2002 grant awardee, became the
world's 8th most productive asteroid astrometry station when his
observatory made 50,799 asteroid position observations in 2003 alone.
Without these types of measurements, it is impossible to determine
whether the objects present a threat to Earth.

Grant recipients have also discovered many previously unknown asteroids,
including John Broughton's April 11, 2004 discovery of 2004 GA1. This
is possibly the first amateur discovery of a potentially hazardous NEO
exceeding one kilometer in diameter.

Since The Planetary Society's inception in 1980, the organization has
funded over $250,000 for asteroid research, about half of which was
awarded through 17 Shoemaker NEO grants to observers around the world.
Society-funded programs have yielded several asteroid discoveries.
Shoemaker NEO grant money has been used for everything from upgrading
equipment to purchasing CCD cameras to paying the salaries of graduate
students involved in observing programs.

About 40% of the estimated total number of one-kilometer or larger
objects that cross Earth's orbit have been discovered. Government
support for searches and follow-up programs remains modest so programs
like The Planetary Society's Gene Shoemaker NEO grants fill a vital niche.

THE GENE SHOEMAKER NEO GRANTS
October 1, 2004 is the deadline for applicants to apply for current
Shoemaker NEO grants. Grant sizes are typically $3,000 to $10,000. The
Planetary Society welcomes applications from amateur and under-funded
professional observers anywhere in the world.

Funding for the Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant program comes from The
Planetary Society's members, whose voluntary dues and donations permit
targeted support of research and development programs in a number of areas.

An international advisory group recommends candidates to receive the
grant awards. The advisory group includes grant coordinator Daniel D.
Durda, as well as noted near-Earth object scientists Alan Harris of the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Brian Marsden of the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory. Other international participants are being
added to this year's panel.

The Planetary Society's
2004 Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant Call for Proposals
http://www.planetary.org/html/neo/SocietyProjects/ShoemakerGrant/NEOGrantindex.html

Application Deadline: October 1, 2004
Received on Wed 14 Jul 2004 08:44:17 PM PDT