Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System
Alternative names | ATLAS Project |
---|---|
T08 (ATLAS-MLO) | |
Website | fallingstar |
] |
The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) is a robotic astronomical survey and early warning system optimized for detecting smaller near-Earth objects a few weeks to days before they impact Earth.
Funded by
ATLAS began observations in 2015 with one telescope at Haleakala, and a two-Hawaii-telescopes version became operational in 2017. The project then obtained NASA funding for two additional telescopes in the Southern hemisphere, which became operational in early 2022.[1] Each telescope surveys one quarter of the whole observable sky four times per clear night,[2] and the addition of the two southern telescopes improved ATLAS's four-fold coverage of the observable sky from every two clear nights to nightly, as well as filled its previous blind spot in the far southern sky.[3]
Context
Major astronomical impact events have significantly shaped
Throughout recorded history, hundreds of Earth impacts (and meteor air bursts) have been reported, with some very small fraction causing deaths, injuries, property damage, or other significant localised consequences.[8] Stony asteroids with a diameter of 4 meters (13 ft) enter Earth's atmosphere approximately once per year.[9] Asteroids with a diameter of 7 meters enter the atmosphere about every 5 years, with as much kinetic energy as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (approximately 16 kilotons of TNT). Their air burst dissipates about one third of that kinetic energy, or 5 kilotons.[9] These relatively small asteroids ordinarily explode in the upper atmosphere and most or all of their solids are vaporized.[10] Asteroids with a diameter of 20 m (66 ft) strike Earth approximately twice every century. One of the best-known impacts in historical times is the 50 meter 1908 Tunguska event, which most likely caused no injuries but which leveled several thousand square kilometers of forest in a very sparsely populated part of Siberia, Russia. A similar impact over a more populous region would have caused locally catastrophic damage.[11] The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor event is the only known impact in historical times to have resulted in a large number of injuries, with the potential exception of the possibly highly deadly but poorly documented 1490 Qingyang event in China. The approximately 20 meter Chelyabinsk meteor is the largest recorded object to have impacted a continent of the Earth since the Tunguska event.
Future impacts are bound to occur, with much higher odds for smaller regionally damaging asteroids than for larger globally damaging ones. The 2018 final book of physicist
Larger asteroids can be detected even while far from the Earth, and their orbits can therefore be very precisely determined many years in advance of any close approach. Thanks largely to
Sub-140m impacting asteroids would not cause large scale damage but are still locally catastrophic. They are much more common and they can, by contrast to larger ones, only be detected when they come very close to the Earth. In most cases this only happens during their final approach. Those impacts therefore will always need a constant watch and they typically cannot be identified earlier than a few weeks in advance, far too late for interception. According to expert testimony in the United States Congress in 2013, NASA would at that time have required at least five years of preparation before a mission to intercept an asteroid could be launched.[23] This time could be much reduced by pre-planning a ready to launch mission, but the post-launch years needed to first meet the asteroid and then to slowly deflect it by at least the diameter of the Earth would be extremely hard to compress.
Naming
The Last Alert part of the ATLAS name acknowledges that the system will find smaller asteroids years too late for potential deflection but would provide the days or weeks of warning needed to evacuate and otherwise prepare a target area. According to ATLAS project lead John Tonry, "that's enough time to evacuate the area of people, take measures to protect buildings and other infrastructure, and be alert to a tsunami danger generated by ocean impacts".[24] Most of the more than 1 billion rubles damage[25] and of the 1500 injuries[26] caused by the 17-m Chelyabinsk meteor impact in 2013 were from window glass broken by its shock wave.[27] With even a few hours advance warning, those losses and injuries could have been much reduced by actions as simple as propping all windows open before the impact and staying away from them.
Overview
The ATLAS project was developed at the
As long as their radiant is not too close to the Sun, the automated system provides a one-week warning for a 45 metres (150 ft) diameter asteroid, and a three-week warning for a 120 m (390 ft) one.[28] By comparison, the February 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor impact was from an object estimated at 17 m (60 ft) diameter. Its arrival direction happened to be close to the Sun[33] and it therefore was in the blind spot of any Earth-based visible light warning system. A similar object arriving from a dark direction would now be detected by ATLAS a few days in advance.[34]
As a by-product of its main design goal, ATLAS can identify any moderately bright variable or moving object in the night sky. It therefore also looks for
Design and operation
The full ATLAS concept consists of eight 50-centimeter diameter f/2
NASA's Near Earth Observation Program initially provided a US$5 million grant, with $3.5 million covering the first three years of design, construction and software development, and the balance of the grant to fund the systems operation for two years following its entry into full operational service in late 2015.[42] Further NASA grants funded continued operation of ATLAS[43] and the construction of the two Southern telescopes.[31]
Discoveries
- SN 2018cow, a relatively bright supernova on 2018-06-16.
- 2018 AH, largest asteroid to pass so close to Earth since 1971 on 2018-01-02.
- A106fgF, a 2–5 m asteroid which either passed extremely close or impacted Earth on 2018-01-22.
- 2018 RC, near earth asteroid on 2018-09-03 (notable because it was discovered more than a day prior to closest approach on 2018-09-09).[44]
- A10bMLz, unknown space debris, so-called "empty trash bag object" on 2019-01-25.[45]
- 2019 MO, an approximately 4 m asteroid which impacted the Caribbean Sea South of Puerto Rico in June 2019[46]
- C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), comet
- 2020 VT4, a 5–10 m object which passed closer to Earth than any other known near-miss asteroid
- Photographed ejecta from NASA's DART impact on asteroid Dimorphos[47]
- AT2022aedm explosion in an elliptical host galaxy[48]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Expanded UH asteroid tracking system can monitor entire sky". University of Hawaii News. University of Hawaii. 27 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
- S2CID 59135328. Accessed 2018-04-14.
- S2CID 135330315. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- PMID 11857903.
- ^ "International Chronostratigraphic Chart". International Commission on Stratigraphy. 2015. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-375-70261-7.
- ^ Dvorsky, George (2017-09-17). "The Hottest Known Temperature On Earth Was Caused By An Ancient Asteroid Strike". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
- ISBN 978-0-201-48950-7
- ^ a b Robert Marcus; H. Jay Melosh; Gareth Collins (2010). "Earth Impact Effects Program". Imperial College London / Purdue University. Retrieved 2013-02-04. (solution using 2600kg/m^3, 17km/s, 45 degrees)
- S2CID 4305299
- ISSN 0026-1114, bibliographic code: 1994Metic..29..864Y.
- ^ Stanley-Becker, Isaac (15 October 2018). "Stephen Hawking feared race of 'superhumans' able to manipulate their own DNA". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- ^ Haldevang, Max de (14 October 2018). "Stephen Hawking left us bold predictions on AI, superhumans, and aliens". Quartz. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- ^ Bogdan, Dennis (18 June 2018). "Comment - Better Way To Avoid Devastating Asteroids Needed?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- ^ Homer, Aaron (28 April 2018). "Earth Will Be Hit By An Asteroid With 100 Percent Certainty, Says Space-Watching Group B612 - The group of scientists and former astronauts is devoted to defending the planet from a space apocalypse". Inquisitr. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
- National Archives.
- ^ Mandelbaum, Ryan F. (21 June 2018). "America Isn't Ready to Handle a Catastrophic Asteroid Impact, New Report Warns". Gizmodo. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
- .
- ^ Chang, Kenneth (14 June 2018). "Asteroids and Adversaries: Challenging What NASA Knows About Space Rocks - Two years ago, NASA dismissed and mocked an amateur's criticisms of its asteroids database. Now Nathan Myhrvold is back, and his papers have passed peer review". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
- ^ Chang, Kenneth (14 June 2018). "Asteroids and Adversaries: Challenging What NASA Knows About Space Rocks - Relevant Comments". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
- ^ Staff (21 June 2018). "George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey ActNational Near-Earth Object". GovTrack. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
- ^ Matt Williams (October 20, 2017). "Good News Everyone! There are Fewer Deadly Undiscovered Asteroids than we Thought". Universe Today. Archived from the original on 2017-11-04. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
- ^ U.S.Congress (19 March 2013). "Threats From Space: a Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and mitigate Asteroids and Meteors (Part I and Part II) – Hearing Before the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology House of Representatives One Hundred Thirteenth Congress First Session" (PDF). United States Congress. p. 147. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- ^ Clark, Stuart (20 June 2017). "Asteroids and how to deflect them". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
- ^ Ущерб от челябинского метеорита превысит миллиард рублей [Damage from Chelyabinsk meteorite exceeds one billion rubles] (in Russian). Lenta.ru. 15 February 2013. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013.
- ^ Число пострадавших при падении метеорита приблизилось к 1500 [The number of victims of the meteorite approached 1500] (in Russian). РосБизнесКонсалтинг [RBC]. 18 February 2013. Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
- ^ Heintz, Jim; Isachenkov, Vladimir (15 February 2013). "Meteor explodes over Russia's Ural Mountains; 1,100 injured as shock wave blasts out windows". Postmedia Network Inc. The Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Vladimir Purgin said many of the injured were cut as they flocked to windows to see what caused the intense flash of light, which was momentarily brighter than the sun.
- ^ a b c d University of Hawaii at Manoa's Institute for Astronomy (18 February 2013). "ATLAS: The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System". Astronomy Magazine. Archived from the original on 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
- ^ Henry Weiland (18 February 2013). "New Schmidt Correctors Installed!". Archived from the original on 2020-03-28. Retrieved 2017-10-12.
- ^ "SAAO to contribute to the global effort to detect Near Earth Objects."
- ^ a b Project that spots city-killing asteroids expands to Southern Hemisphere.
- ^ Atlas: How it works. Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.
- arXiv:1302.5377 [astro-ph.EP].
We use this result to classify the meteoroid among the near Earth asteroid families finding that the parent body belonged to the Apollo asteroids.
- ^ [1] Breakthrough: UH team successfully locates incoming asteroid
- S2CID 59939788.
- ^ [2] 'ATLAS Solar System Catalog V1'
- ^ ATLAS Telescope 2 Installed on Mauna Loa, Ari Heinze [3] Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ Our SAAO colleagues have completed the assembly of the ATLAS dome! [4] Retrieved December 14, 2020.
- ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2nB46hUuMk feature=youtu.be
- ^ ATLAS Technical Specifications
- ^ [5]
- University of Hawaii, No. 46, 2013, p. 1. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
- ^ ATLAS Update #18: 2017 March [6] Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ Minor Planet Center records for 2018 RC
- ^ "Mysterious Object Spotted In Earth's Atmosphere". IFLScience. 30 January 2019. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
- ^ "Breakthrough: UH team successfully locates incoming asteroid". www.ifa.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
- ^ ATLAS twitter feed
- ISSN 2041-8205.