Posted on 02/18/2024 5:07:40 PM PST by Red Badger
NEO 2003 SD220 on screen.
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How can humans protect the Earth from "devastating asteroid and comet impacts?" According to the National Academies and their 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, ground based astronomical radar systems will have a "unique role" to play in planetary defense. There is currently only one system in the world concentrating on these efforts, NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar, part of the Deep Space Network (DSN). However, a new instrument concept from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) called the next generation RADAR (ngRADAR) system will use the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and other current and future facilities to expand on these capabilities.
"There are many applications for the future of radar, from substantially advancing our knowledge of the Solar System, to informing future robotic and crewed spaceflight, and characterizing hazardous objects that stray too close to Earth," shares Tony Beasley, NRAO's director.
On Saturday, February 17th, scientists will showcase recent results obtained with ground-based radar systems at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference in Denver, Colorado.
"NRAO, with the support of the National Science Foundation and oversight by Associated Universities, Inc., has a long history of using radar to further our understanding of the Universe. Most recently the GBT helped confirm the success of NASA's DART mission, the first test to see if humans could successfully alter the trajectory of an asteroid, " shares NRAO scientist and ngRADAR project director Patrick Taylor.
The GBT is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. The maneuverability of its 100-meter dish enables it to observe 85 percent of the celestial sphere, allowing it to quickly track objects across its field of view. Adds Taylor, "With the support of Raytheon Technologies, ngRADAR pilot tests on the GBT-using a low-power transmitter with less output than a standard microwave oven-have produced the highest-resolution images of the Moon ever taken from Earth. Imagine what we could do with a more powerful transmitter."
Scientists sharing their results at AAAS include Edgard G. Rivera-Valentin of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Marina Brozovic of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages Goldstone and the DSN. Adds Brozovic, "The public might be surprised to learn that the technology we use in our current radar at Goldstone hasn't changed much since World War II. For 99% of our observations, we transmit and receive from this one antenna. New radar transmitter designs, like ngRADAR on the GBT, have the potential to significantly increase the output power and waveform bandwidth, allowing for even higher resolution imaging. It will also produce a scalable and more robust system by using telescope arrays to increase the collecting area."
"NRAO is an ideal organization to lead these efforts because of the instruments we have available to receive radar signals, like the Very Long Baseline Array has done in our pilot ngRADAR project," explains Brian Kent, NRAO scientist and director of science communications, who coordinated the presentation at AAAS, "Future facilities like the next generation Very Large Array, as a receiver, will create a powerful combination for planetary science."
How does ground-based astronomical radar expand our understanding of the Universe? By allowing us to study our nearby Solar System, and everything in it, in unprecedented detail. Radar can reveal the surface and ancient geology of planets and their moons, letting us trace their evolution. It can also determine the location, size, and speed of potentially hazardous Near Earth Objects, like comets or asteroids. Advances in astronomical radar are opening new avenues, renewed investment, and interest in joint industry and scientific community collaborations as a multidisciplinary venture.
Ping!...................
Is it......circling?
Or slowing down?.................
on the moon... right?
Related:
NASA explains how it would alert the public of an apocalyptic asteroid strike
Ellyn Lapointe Feb 17, 2024, 3:13 AM PST
‘First, the party members who detected the threat would share their observations across the IAWN network to verify their findings and assess the danger.
‘Once all parties agree that Earth should brace for impact, NASA would send out an alert.
“I don’t have a red phone on my desk or anything,” Johnson said.’
I thought we were doomed to global warming what difference does this make other than more money?
"Comparison between the best-fit convex and nonconvex shape models, and some of the available radar images of (99942) Apophis"
Phooey.
What are they going to do? Nuke it?
It has been theorized that a small thruster attached to an asteroid could nudge it into a completely different orbit and be safe for a long time..............
SID from the TV show UFO?
Hoss
Most likely about 2 hours before impact...
Stars, intense gravity, collisions, etc. produce natural light in the radio spectrum that is captured by radio telescopes.
Small asteroids and comets produce no radio waves unless they are being heated by an atmosphere or a star.
Are we going to build giant radar transmitters and flood Earth's local neighborhood with radar waves 24-7 to detect silent almost invisible space rocks and ice boulders that might strike Earth?
That sounds like a hugely expensive and complex project.
A Radio Telescope is nothing more than a giant Radio Receiving Antenna, and the Green Bank Telescope is 100 Meters across.
An antenna can not only receive, it can also TRANSMIT.
Connect a Radar Frequency TRANSMITTER to it and it becomes a Steerable Radar System, without having to build a new dish.
And Radio Telescope can be modified to do this.
If they really wanted to, Aracaibo could be rebuilt and refurbished to do this as well, although it isn’t as steerable................
Thanks for the extra insight.
I was trying to emphasize the point that Earth threatening space rocks and ice balls do not generate their own radio waves, at least until they enter the atmosphere, at which time they become an unavoidable catastrophe that is just minutes away.
My impression is that most people do not understand that radio waves are a form of light energy, and that huge radio telescopes do not send out radar signals to bounce off of distant space objects.
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