[meteorite-list] Beautiful time-lapse movie showing the growth in discovered minor planets since 1980

From: Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:34:07 -0700
Message-ID: <9180F6B27399C541B10663E21C8BDE9222B476_at_0461-its-exmb09.us.saic.com>

Hi All,

Here is a fascinating video graphically showing the exponential growth
in
discovered minor planets over the last 30 years. At the beginning of
1980,
the count stood at 8954. It's now over half a million!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_d-gs0WoUw

In this time-lapse video, as new minor planets are discovered, they are
highlighted in white. You'll notice that the majority of the discoveries
follow the earth around in its orbit (since most discoveries are made at
opposition).

In the 1990s, the big surveys start to come online, and the discovery
rates skyrocket. In 2010, a new pattern of discoveries starts to show up
in a line perpendicular to the earth-sun line. This shows the dramatic
increase in minor planet discoveries by WISE (the Widefield Infrared
Survey Explorer), which only images near 90-degree elongation.

The final color-coding of minor planets differentiates the NEOs from the
mainbelters. Earth-crossing NEOs are colored red; earth-approaching NEOs
(perihelion distance less than 1.3 a.u.) are in yellow; all others are
green.

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Fri 27 Aug 2010 01:34:07 PM PDT