Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes
2019

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Near Earth objects (NEOs) have the potential to cause significant damage on Earth. In December 2018, an asteroid exploded in the upper atmosphere over the Bering Sea (western Pacific Ocean) with the explosive force of nearly 10 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. While the frequency of NEO impacts rises in inverse proportion to their sizes, it is still critical to monitor NEO activity in order to prepare defenses for these rare but dangerous threats.

Currently, NASA funds a network of ground-based telescopes and a single, soon-to-expire space-based asset to detect and track large asteroids that could cause major damage if they struck Earth. This asset is crucial to NEO tracking as thermal-infrared detection and tracking of asteroids can only be accomplished on a space-based platform.

Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes explores the advantages and disadvantages of infrared (IR) technology and visible wavelength observations of NEOs. This report reviews the techniques that could be used to obtain NEO sizes from an infrared spectrum and delineate the associated errors in determining the size. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques and recommends the most valid techniques that give reproducible results with quantifiable errors.

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74 pages · 8.5 x 11 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-49398-6
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-49399-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/25476

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National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Front Matter i-xii
Summary 1-6
1 Introduction and Background 7-13
2 The Components of Planetary Defense 14-19
3 Current and Near-Term NEO Observation Systems 20-27
4 The Advantages of Space-Based Infrared Platforms 28-34
5 Techniques to Obtain NEO Sizes 35-40
6 The Role of Archival Data 41-43
7 Impact Hazards Not Explicitly Considered by the George E. Brown, Jr. Act 44-46
Appendixes 47-48
Appendix A: Letter of Request 49-50
Appendix B: Studies of the Accuracy of the Near Earth Asteroid Thermal Model 51-53
Appendix C: Advantages and Disadvantages of Ground- and Space-Based Options for Infrared and Visible Observations of Near Earth Objects 54-55
Appendix D: Committee and Staff Biographical Information 56-59
Appendix E: Acronyms 60-62

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Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes (2019)

Chapter: Appendix A: Letter of Request

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Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes (2019)

Chapter: Appendix A: Letter of Request