12-04-2017, 06:36 PM
Some of you may find this of interest. For three years we (UKIRT) worked with the University of Arizona and NASA on a project called "Planetary Protection" or Planetary Defense as this article mentions. The idea is to not only track asteroids that might threaten Earth but also understand their composition. i.e., if we have to deal with a threat, we need to know if it's one massive lump of heavy rock or just a loose aggregate of rock. That'll determine what we can do to protect our planet.
This article refers to work being done at MK's IRTF by students in Arizona:
https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-stud...e-exercise
"Finding out what TC4 is made of turned out to be more challenging. Is the asteroid rich in carbon, or does it consist of bright rocky materials? Infrared observations made with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, or IRTF, at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii would allow scientists to identify the asteroid's composition. On a trip funded by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's external advisory board, graduate students from the UA traveled to Hawaii to perform the necessary observations."
This article refers to work being done at MK's IRTF by students in Arizona:
https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/ua-stud...e-exercise
"Finding out what TC4 is made of turned out to be more challenging. Is the asteroid rich in carbon, or does it consist of bright rocky materials? Infrared observations made with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, or IRTF, at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii would allow scientists to identify the asteroid's composition. On a trip funded by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's external advisory board, graduate students from the UA traveled to Hawaii to perform the necessary observations."