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

From: Robert Woolard <meteoritefinder_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:39:46 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <415517.65893.qm_at_web39605.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hello Rob,

? Thanks for the very interesting link. I always enjoy your posts to The List. Please keep 'em coming!

? Best wishes,
? Robert Woolard

--- On Fri, 8/27/10, Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com> wrote:

> From: Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Beautiful time-lapse movie showing the growth in discovered minor planets since 1980
> To: "Meteorite Central" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Date: Friday, August 27, 2010, 12:34 PM
> 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
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Received on Fri 27 Aug 2010 03:39:46 PM PDT