[meteorite-list] Space Radar? (Was: Cold Asteroids May Have A Soft Heart)

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:15:57 -0700
Message-ID: <4DA6830D.607_at_meteoritesusa.com>

Richard, List,

Since smaller meteoroids and asteroids are nearly undetectable in space,
and we're currently searching optically with telescopes. Is it possible
to detect meteoroids/asteroids with space based radar?

Will radar even work in space? If so, what's the range, and how would it
work? Do we have something like this?

I know we have space based weather radar satellites, but what about
pointing them into empty space to search for asteroids?

Sorry if this is a dumb question... Just curious.

Regards,
Eric



On 4/13/2011 10:00 PM, Richard A. Kowalski wrote:
> Small chunks of Vesta in earth crossing orbits, say 10 meters in
> diameter, the size that can drop tens of kilos on the earth's surface,
> are very difficult to detect. In fact something this size may only be
> detected a few days before impact, if at all.
Received on Thu 14 Apr 2011 01:15:57 AM PDT