06-25-2019, 04:07 PM
"Breakthrough: UH team successfully locates incoming asteroid"
Although this isn't directly related to Mauna Kea, it involves UH's Institute for Astronomy and telescopes on Mauna Loa and Haleakala. For the first time, astronomers have been able to predict the impact site of an incoming asteroid allowing enough warning time to potentially evacuate that site. Although this is not foolproof, for instance, incoming asteroids coming from the direction of the sun may not be detectable at all, it is a major step forward in planetary protection.
Press release: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-rel...AS_2019MO/
"Scientists estimate that asteroid 2019 MO was much smaller, only about 4 meters (13 feet) across. An asteroid that small would likely burn up entirely as it enters Earth's atmosphere. The ATLAS telescopes can detect even such small objects about half a day before they arrive. It will find larger objects, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, a few days before they impact. That asteroid was about 20 meters across, or the size of a house. For the first time in history, astronomers can provide sufficient warning to move people away from the impact site."
Although this isn't directly related to Mauna Kea, it involves UH's Institute for Astronomy and telescopes on Mauna Loa and Haleakala. For the first time, astronomers have been able to predict the impact site of an incoming asteroid allowing enough warning time to potentially evacuate that site. Although this is not foolproof, for instance, incoming asteroids coming from the direction of the sun may not be detectable at all, it is a major step forward in planetary protection.
Press release: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-rel...AS_2019MO/
"Scientists estimate that asteroid 2019 MO was much smaller, only about 4 meters (13 feet) across. An asteroid that small would likely burn up entirely as it enters Earth's atmosphere. The ATLAS telescopes can detect even such small objects about half a day before they arrive. It will find larger objects, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, a few days before they impact. That asteroid was about 20 meters across, or the size of a house. For the first time in history, astronomers can provide sufficient warning to move people away from the impact site."