Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




IRON AND ICE
Swift Observatory Catches Asteroid Flyby
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 11, 2011


Asteroid 2005 YU55 whisks through the field of view of Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) on Nov. 9, just hours after the space rock made its closest approach to Earth. The video plays on a background image from the Digital Sky Survey that shows the same region, which lies within the Great Square asterism of the constellation Pegasus (times UT). (Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler and DSS). See the movie at Swift.

As asteroid 2005 YU55 swept past Earth in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 9, telescopes aboard NASA's Swift satellite joined professional and amateur astronomers around the globe in monitoring the fast-moving space rock. The unique ultraviolet data will aid scientists in understanding the asteroid's surface composition.

"Swift's ultraviolet and X-ray capability gives scientists a unique perspective on comets and asteroids, expanding the spectral window beyond the radio, infrared and optical observations so well handled by big ground-based facilities," said Sergio Campana, a Swift team member at Brera Observatory in Merate, Italy.

Campana requested that the spacecraft train its telescopes on the asteroid as a target of opportunity.

Although Swift is better known for its study of high-energy outbursts and cosmic explosions, the versatile satellite has made valuable observations of passing comets and asteroids as well.

All told, the spacecraft has observed ten asteroids, including Vesta - now being studied close-up by NASA's Dawn spacecraft - and Scheila, which brightened unexpectedly in late 2010 after colliding with a much smaller asteroid.

Classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of a collision with Earth for at least the next century. But understanding the details of how its surface reflects light and heat will allow improved assessments of future hazards.

A body in space absorbs sunlight and reradiates the energy as heat, and both of these processes produce a miniscule force that, over time, can alter the object's motion.

"We observed the asteroid with Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical and X-ray telescopes but, as expected, we saw it only in the UV," said Dennis Bodewits, a Swift team member at the University of Maryland in College Park.

The challenge with 2005 YU55 was its rapid motion across the sky, which was much too fast for Swift to track. Instead, the team trained the spacecraft's optics at two locations along the asteroid's predicted path and let it streak through the field.

The first exposure began a few hours after the asteroid's closest approach and fastest sky motion - before 9 p.m. EST on Nov. 8 - but detected only a weak signal.

Six hours later, around 3 a.m. EST on Nov. 9, Swift began an exposure that captured the asteroid sweeping through the Great Square of the constellation Pegasus. The 11th-magnitude rock was then 333,000 miles away and moving at 24,300 mph, about an hour after its closest approach to the Moon.

That exposure gave the Swift team more than a streak through the stars. "A novel feature of Swift is the ability to go into a mode tracking the arrival of every photon captured by the instrument.

With that information, we can reconstruct the asteroid as a point source moving through the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope's field of view," said Neil Gehrels, lead scientist for Swift at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The 27-minute-long image was effectively sliced into short 10-second-long exposures, which then were combined into a movie. This allows scientists to study short-term brightness variations caused by the object's rotation.

The result is a movie of 2005 YU55 at ultraviolet wavelengths unobtainable from ground-based telescopes. For planetary scientists, this movie is a treasure trove of data that will help them better understand how this asteroid is put together, information that may help make predictions of its motion more secure for centuries to come.

.


Related Links
Swift at NASA
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








IRON AND ICE
NASA Releases Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 10, 2011
Scientists working with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a short movie clip of asteroid 2005 YU55. The images were generated from data collected at Goldstone on Nov. 7, 2011, between 11:24 a.m. and 1:35 p.m. PST (2:24 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. EST). They are the highest-resolution images ever generated by radar of a near-Earth object. ... read more


IRON AND ICE
Ancient Lunar Dynamo May Explain Magnetized Moon Rocks

Ancient Lunar Dynamo May Explain Magnetized Moon Rocks

Lunar Probe to search for water on Moon

Subtly Shaded Map of Moon Reveals Titanium Treasure Troves

IRON AND ICE
NASA Ready for November Launch of Car-Size Mars Rover

Russia fails to revive stranded Mars probe

Russia tries to save stranded Mars probe

Curiosity Drives Canada Back To Mars

IRON AND ICE
International rendezvous in Lucca on global space exploration

Shot US lawmaker speaks out in first interview

Orbital Teamed with Three NASA Explorer Mission Finalists

NASA Proposes Orion Spacecraft Test Flight In 2014

IRON AND ICE
Second Tiangong-1 And Shenzhou-8 docking to face light interference

Made-in-Chengdu to help Shenzhou spacecraft return

What does the Tiangong 1 space station mean for China

China masters space command, control

IRON AND ICE
Campaign Begins For Third Automated Transfer Vehicle Mission To ISS

New Supply Ship Arrives, Departure Preps and Science Under Way

Russian space freighter docks with orbital station

Progress Successfully Docks With ISS

IRON AND ICE
ILS and Eutelsat Announce Launch of the W3D Satellite in 2013

The second Soyuz launcher's Fregat upper stage is readied for flight

Arianespace Ends 2011 With Three Launcher Campaigns

Six Astrium satellites on the same flight

IRON AND ICE
Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System

Dwarf planet sized up accurately as it blocks light of faint star

Herschel Finds Oceans of Water in Disk of Nearby Star

UH Astronomer Finds Planet in the Process of Forming

IRON AND ICE
New metamaterial allows transmission gain while retaining negative refraction property

iPhone 4S making frenzied debut in 15 new markets

Are electron tweezers possible

NASA Develops Super-Black Material That Absorbs Light Across Multiple Wavelength Bands




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement