{"id":17380,"date":"2022-06-01T01:21:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T17:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/astronomers-demonstrate-how-using-the-cloud-can-rev-up-the-race-to-find-asteroids\/"},"modified":"2022-06-01T01:21:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T17:21:37","slug":"astronomers-demonstrate-how-using-the-cloud-can-rev-up-the-race-to-find-asteroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/astronomers-demonstrate-how-using-the-cloud-can-rev-up-the-race-to-find-asteroids\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers demonstrate how using the cloud can rev up the race to find asteroids"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This visualization shows trajectories of asteroids found using ADAM (in green). Earth\u2019s orbit is represented by a blue arc closer to the sun. (B612 Asteroid Institute \/ UW DiRAC Institute \/ Open Space Project)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronomers have used a cloud-based technique pioneered at the University of Washington to identify and track asteroids in bunches of a hundred or more. Their achievement could dramatically accelerate the quest to find potentially threatening space rocks.<\/p>\n

The technique makes use of an open-source analysis platform known as Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping, or ADAM; plus a recently developed algorithm called Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery, or THOR. The THOR algorithm was created by Joachim Moeyens, an Asteroid Institute Fellow at UW; and Mario Juric, director of UW\u2019s DiRAC Institute. <\/p>\n

Teaming up ADAM and THOR may sound like a cross between a Bible story and a Marvel comic, but this dynamic duo\u2019s superpower is strictly scientific: When ADAM runs the THOR algorithm, the software can determine the orbits of asteroids, even previously unidentified asteroids, by sifting through any large database of astronomical observations.<\/p>\n

ADAM has been a long-term project for the Asteroid Institute, a program of the California-based B612 Foundation. <\/p>\n

\u201cDiscovering and tracking asteroids is crucial to understanding our solar system, enabling development of space, and protecting our planet from asteroid impacts,\u201d former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, the Asteroid Institute\u2019s executive director, said today in a news release. \u201cWith THOR running on ADAM, any telescope with an archive can now become an asteroid search telescope.\u201d<\/p>\n

To demonstrate the technique\u2019s power, Moeyens used THOR to analyze 30 days\u2019 worth of imagery from the NOIRLab Source Catalog, a collection of nearly 68 billion observations made by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory\u2019s telescopes between 2012 and 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Asteroid Institute\u2019s ADAM platform is perfectly suited for the THOR algorithm,\u201d Moeyens explained. \u201cBuilt on Google Cloud, ADAM\u2019s innate scalability and computational power allows us to fully maximize THOR\u2019s potential as a discovery algorithm and ultimately allows us to find those asteroids that have thus far remained undetected in archival datasets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of 1,354 asteroid detections made using THOR, Moeyens selected a sampling of 113 candidates to submit to the International Astronomical Union\u2019s Minor Planet Center. The center, which maintains the authoritative list of asteroids, added 104 of the asteroids to its list. (The other nine turned out to be previously known asteroids.)<\/p>\n

Most of the 104 asteroids are in the main belt, between Mars and Jupiter. None of them poses a threat to Earth.<\/p>\n

Validation for the new asteroid search technique could open the way to discover tens of thousands of asteroids that are hidden within the data sets from NOIRLab and other telescope teams.<\/p>\n

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