We may no longer have to fear an invisible space rock the size of the Empire State Building passing into orbit.
Asteroid hunters have used cutting-edge technology to identify 27,500 overlooked near-Earth asteroids that could prevent Armageddon in the future.
Instead of observing the starry sky with a traditional telescope, researchers devised a new algorithm called . Trackletless Heliocentric Orbit Recovery (THOR) This involves scrutinizing old photographs of the universe like interstellar forensics.
Using this method, scientists were able to precisely identify tens of thousands of solar system objects discovered by every telescope around the world last year.
Perhaps the most important of these are the 100 near-Earth asteroids that pass within Earth’s orbit.
Most of them exist within the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
“We’re very excited about this,” said Ed Lu, executive director of the Asteroid Research Institute, which led the study with the University of Washington. told the New York Times The work represents a “major change” in the way astronomical research is conducted.
None of the newly discovered intergalactic boulders were on a collision course with Earth, but the algorithm could help identify potentially dangerous asteroids and other horrors from beyond. be.
“Comprehensive maps of the solar system give astronomers important insights for both science and planetary defense,” said Dynamics Researcher and Explorer at Harvard University & Smithsonian University Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. said algorithm expert Matthew Holman. In a 2022 press release.
The traditional method of analyzing the orbits of celestial objects involves analyzing multiple photos of the same part of the sky taken over time. This allows you to piece together object trajectories like a jigsaw puzzle or a flip book.
But THOR works by connecting small points of light observed in one image with corresponding points in another photo, inferring that they are the same object and effectively predicting its flight path. .
The National Institute for Optical and Infrared Astronomy (NOIRLab) has 412,000 images in its digital archive, some of which depict 1.7 billion dots of light, the New York Times reported. Ta.
Using Google Cloud, THOR was able to identify all previously overlooked objects within about five weeks.
“The work of the Asteroid Lab is critical as astronomers are reaching the limits of what they can discover with current technology and telescopes,” said THOR co-inventor and senior data science researcher at the University of Wisconsin eScience Institute. said Mario Juric.
Scientists hope THOR will help increase the number of asteroids that can be discovered with space telescopes.
THOR can currently find 80 percent of near-Earth asteroids larger than 460 feet in diameter, which is only 10 percent short of the goal outlined in a 2005 directive passed by Congress.
In February, an asteroid the size of a double-decker bus passed close to Earth, coming within 140,000 miles, closer than the moon.
Despite its incredible capabilities, THOR could perhaps make the research space less appealing as the focus moves more and more from the stars themselves to computer screens.
