Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: laurin voge obamb here as fighter pilots in World Wars
Speaker 1: one and two were acutely aware attacking an enemy aircraft
Speaker 1: from the direction of the Sun was a very effective
Speaker 1: tactic to catch your target by surprise. The glare of
Speaker 1: sunlight provided cover until it was too late for the
Speaker 1: opponent to react. While asteroids don't consciously have this tactic
Speaker 1: in mind, we hope astronomers are extremely mindful that the
Speaker 1: Sun maybe hiding a cache of undiscovered and potentially hazard
Speaker 1: as asteroids within its glare. This concern was highlighted by
Speaker 1: the July announcement that is surprisingly big asteroid with the
Speaker 1: shortest known year was discovered by this wiki transient facility,
Speaker 1: a powerful camera at the Palomar Observatory in California. The asteroid,
Speaker 1: designated nine l F six, is point six miles or
Speaker 1: one kilometer wide and orbits the Sun entirely inside Earth's orbit.
Speaker 1: It completes one orbit every one hundred and fifty one
Speaker 1: Earth days. It zooms from within the orbit of Mercury,
Speaker 1: which orbits the Sun every eighty eight days, to as
Speaker 1: far out as Venus, which has a two twenty five
Speaker 1: day orbit in a wonky trajectory that flings it out
Speaker 1: of the orbital plane in the process, a sign that
Speaker 1: it was once gravitationally disturbed by one of the two
Speaker 1: planets in the past. This rare space rock belongs to
Speaker 1: a very exclusive group of asteroids known as Tira asteroids,
Speaker 1: which orbit the Sun closer than Earth. There are only
Speaker 1: twenty known to exist. The fact that they fly between
Speaker 1: us and the Sun makes them uniquely difficult objects to detect,
Speaker 1: but even for an a Tira asteroid, l F six
Speaker 1: didn't make it easy. Most asteroids of its size have
Speaker 1: already been found, but it's unique orbit evaded decades of
Speaker 1: organized searches. Asteroid l F six was detected as part
Speaker 1: of the Twilight Campaign. As the name suggests, the best
Speaker 1: time to observe asteroids such as these is during the
Speaker 1: short period of twilight, just after sunset but before dark.
Speaker 1: The campaign, which was developed by researchers at the National
Speaker 1: Central University in Taiwan, discovered another a Tira asteroid designated
Speaker 1: twenty nine a Q three in January of a Q
Speaker 1: three has a one d and sixty five day orbit
Speaker 1: around the Sun in addition these, Wiki transient facility has
Speaker 1: identified around two thousand asteroids living in the main asteroid
Speaker 1: belt between Mars and Jupiter, plus an impressive hall of
Speaker 1: one hundred Near Earth objects or n e o s,
Speaker 1: which are commons and asteroids whose orbits bring them within
Speaker 1: relatively close proximity to Earth. In addition to the Twilight campaign,
Speaker 1: a proposed NASA spacecraft called the Near Earth Object Camera
Speaker 1: or NEOCam, will also be able to study the inner
Speaker 1: Solar System for more A Tira asteroids by seeking out
Speaker 1: their heat signature. We spoke with George Hallow, a researcher
Speaker 1: at Caltech and memory of the discovery team. He said,
Speaker 1: because A Tira asteroids are closer to the Sun and
Speaker 1: warmer than other asteroids, they're brighter in the infrared. Neo
Speaker 1: CAM has the double advantage of its location in space
Speaker 1: and its infrared capability to find these asteroids more easily
Speaker 1: than telescopes working at visible wavelengths from the ground. The
Speaker 1: Near Earth objects are of particular interest because, on the
Speaker 1: optimistic end, they might potentially be future sites of landings
Speaker 1: and research. On the pessimistic end, they could possibly collide
Speaker 1: with Earth. Since NASA began it's any O Observations program.
Speaker 1: The agency estimates that it's discovered more than of near
Speaker 1: Earth asteroids measuring point six miles or one kilometer and larger.
Speaker 1: While l F six has been classified as a near
Speaker 1: Earth asteroid and is therefore part of a dwindling group
Speaker 1: of undiscovered objects of this size, it's not considered a
Speaker 1: threat to Earth. Simulations of its future orbits indicate no
Speaker 1: eminent likelihood of a future collision. However, it is a
Speaker 1: reminder that these substantial asteroids are still out there, and
Speaker 1: projects like these Wiki Transient Facility can probe The Inner
Speaker 1: Solar System or the Sun may be hiding them. So
Speaker 1: for now, while Earth is safe from being smashed by
Speaker 1: large space that could cause global damage, astronomers are on
Speaker 1: high alert to ensure that we won't get blindsided by
Speaker 1: the glare of the Sun. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Dr Ian O'Neill and produced by Tyler clay. A Brainstuff
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other probably safe topics,
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