{"id":17273,"date":"2023-07-31T18:04:29","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T10:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/scientists-successfully-test-algorithm-for-identifying-potentially-hazardous-asteroids\/"},"modified":"2023-07-31T18:04:29","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T10:04:29","slug":"scientists-successfully-test-algorithm-for-identifying-potentially-hazardous-asteroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/scientists-successfully-test-algorithm-for-identifying-potentially-hazardous-asteroids\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists successfully test algorithm for identifying potentially hazardous asteroids"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"472\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/230731-asteroid-630x472.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-783771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/230731-asteroid-630x472.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/230731-asteroid-1260x944.png 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/230731-asteroid-768x575.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/230731-asteroid.png 1442w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">A bird\u2019s-eye view of the solar system shows the orbital path for Earth in blue and the projected orbit for the asteroid known as 2022 SF289 at its closest approach in green. Orbits of Venus and Mars are shown in orange and red. (Credit: Joachim Moeyens \/ University of Washington \/ OpenSpace) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A new technique for finding potentially hazardous asteroids before they find us has chalked up its first success.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, the asteroid isn\u2019t expected to threaten Earth anytime in the foreseeable future. But the fact that the technique \u2014 which uses a new computer algorithm called HelioLinc3D \u2014 actually works comes as a confidence boost as astronomers get set to step up the asteroid hunt with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Washington\u2019s DiRAC Institute will play a leading role in analyzing the data from the Rubin Observatory, and HelioLinc3D is meant to make the job easier. It\u2019ll be another couple of years before the Rubin Observatory starts surveying the skies, but researchers put HelioLinc3D to the test by feeding it data from the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS.<\/p>\n<p>During the July 18 test run, the algorithm combined fragments of ATLAS data from four nights of observations to identify an asteroid that had been previously missed.<\/p>\n<p>The asteroid, designated 2022 SF289 and described in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular, is thought to be about 600 feet wide. That\u2019s wide enough to cause widespread destruction on Earth in the event of an impact. The good news is that projections of 2022 SF289\u2019s orbital path show it staying 140,000 miles away from Earth at its closest. Nevertheless, the space rock fits NASA\u2019s definition of a potentially hazardous asteroid because of its estimated size and the fact that it can come within 5 million miles of our planet.<\/p>\n<p>UW researcher Ari Heinze, the principal developer of HelioLinc3D, said the algorithm\u2019s success should carry over to the Rubin Observatory\u2019s future database.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of the software that Rubin will use to look for thousands of yet-unknown potentially hazardous asteroids, the discovery of 2022 SF289 makes us all safer,\u201d Heinze said in a news release.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2022 SF289: Novel Code Ensnares its First Potentially Hazardous Asteroid\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bsuUWt4udKg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Astronomers had missed identifying 2022 SF289 in their data because the asteroid passed in front of the bright star fields of the Milky Way. That provided a type of cosmic camouflage and made it difficult to collect multiple sightings on a single night, which is the typical route for asteroid discovery. In contrast, HelioLinc3D was able to piece together data from different nights to track the asteroid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny survey will have difficulty discovering objects like 2022 SF289 that are near its sensitivity limit, but HelioLinc3D shows that it is possible to recover these faint objects as long as they are visible over several nights,\u201d said Larry Denneau, a lead ATLAS astronomer from the University of Hawaii. \u201cThis in effect gives us a \u2018bigger, better\u2019 telescope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once astronomers had a fix on 2022 SF289\u2019s orbital path, they were able to locate the asteroid in images previously collected by Pan-STARRS, the Catalina Sky Survey and the Zwicky Transient Facility.<\/p>\n<p>About 2,350 potentially hazardous asteroids have been detected to date, and based on statistical projections, astronomers say at least 3,000 more are yet to be identified. When the Rubin Observatory goes into action, HelioLinc3D is likely to become an important tool for identifying them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is just a small taste of what to expect with the Rubin Observatory in less than two years, when HelioLinc3D will be discovering an object like this every night,\u201d said UW astronomer Mario Juri\u0107, who is the director of the DiRAC Institute.&nbsp;\u201cBut more broadly, it\u2019s a preview of the coming era of data-intensive astronomy. From HelioLinc3D to AI-assisted codes, the next decade of discovery will be a story of advancement in algorithms as much as in new, large telescopes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. In addition to Heinze and Juri\u0107, members of the HelioLinc3D team include Siegfried Eggl, Joachim Moeyens, Lynne Jones, Ian Sullivan, Eric Bellm and Matthew Holman. ATLAS astronomers John Tonry and Larry Denneau contributed data for the algorithm\u2019s test.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bird\u2019s-eye view of the solar system shows the orbital path for Earth in blue and the projected orbit for the asteroid known as 2022 SF289 at its closest approach in green. Orbits of Venus and Mars are shown in orange and red. (Credit: Joachim Moeyens \/ University of Washington \/ OpenSpace) A new technique [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4365,1519,3735,4366,4367,4368,4369],"class_list":["post-17273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid","tag-asteroids","tag-big-data","tag-dirac-institute","tag-lsst","tag-university-of-washington","tag-vera-rubin-observatory"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}