American scientists from Duke University proposed a method that allows you to determine the distance to asteroids very quickly. This will help to calculate orbits and evaluate the risks of collision. The study was published scientifically broadcasting Journal of Astronomy (TAJ).
Today, technologies allow you to monitor large asteroids in the main asteroid strap, but it is difficult to detect smaller objects with a diameter of 100-200 meters. Despite the smaller size, they can cause large -scale destruction in a collision on the floor.
In a new study, the team used the top -centered parallax technique based on the return of the Earth.
Opening authors, “When asteroids are observed in short -time intervals, the main uncertainty in the calculation of their orbits is associated with the distance to them,” he said.
The new method has made it possible to determine the asteroid distance only one night in observation, which significantly accelerated the process.
Technology was tested on both synthetic data and real observations. In the tests performed with synthetic data, the method has shown accuracy up to 98.7% for asteroids at a distance of 0.3 astronomical unit (AE) from Earth. Although the real observations of the two asteroids appeared to be slightly lower, the method confirmed the effectiveness of the method – about 97%.
Researchers believe that their methods can be successfully applied using Vera Rubin (VRO) observatory data, which will start working in 2025. In every few nights, Vro will scan the sky of the southern hemisphere in every night, which will allow even small asteroids to detect.
Scientists also stated that the use of several observation houses in different parts of the world could further increase the accuracy of measurements. This is especially important to monitor close objects that can pose a threat to our planet.
Previous astronomers induced In 2032, asteroid YR4’s risk of collision with the world or the moon.
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Source: Gazeta
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