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New Asteroids -- Discovering and Cataloging
History of Asteroid Discoveries
Up until the 1980s, asteroids catalogued were discovered accidentally on telescopes' photographic plates, showing up as a small streak. Most astronomers viewed an asteroid streak as a nuisance blemishing an otherwise perfect photographic plate, especially if the asteroid was streaking across the other image of interest to the astronomer. Most such streaks were unreported. (Astronomical observations use time exposure photography, exposing the film to the object in view for long periods of time, which is why the asteroid shows up as a streak. It's actually moving fairly slowly as viewed from Earth.)
In the 1970s and 1980s, electronic sensors started to replace film in certain telescopes, which ushered in the era of automated computer searches for asteroids. First, defense applications started using vidicon cameras to look for the satellites of adversaries (which could easily change their orbit to elude tracking). In defense applications, poring over photographs was a laborious task that left a lot to be desired in terms of thoroughness, fatigue and timeliness. (In fact, in detecting the streaks of adversaries' satellites, many asteroids would show up as a small streak.) Instead of film, this revolutionary new system was an electronic camera using a sensor array combined with computer analysis. It was very simple. A picture was taken of the sky. A few minutes later, another picture was taken, and a few minutes later still another picture. The images were stored in the computer, and as each image additional was taken, the computer would look for anything that moved.
In the 1980s astronomers started using more sensitive "CCD" electronic sensors in cameras, whereby film stopped being used for this purpose. CCD sensors have proven to be a key to accelerating the discovery of asteroids because it is automated, thorough and very fast -- and CCD sensors are extremely sensitive.
However, detecting an asteroid in one night is not enough to chart its orbit. There must be follow-up viewings or else the asteroid will be "lost", as many have been. It is important to understand the physical science and political limitations of the current system.
Determining an asteroid's orbit
In order for an asteroid to be catalogued, we must determine its orbit, and hence there must be at least three viewings to chart its orbital elements, one viewing within a few days after the initial sighting, and another between about two weeks and a month later. Using the data from the second observation to chart a rough orbit, we must find the asteroid a third time to get better precision and thus increase our chances of finding the asteroid many years into the future. If we wait too long, we lose the asteroid. This third viewing usually gives us sufficiently precise orbital data so that we have a better chance of relocating the asteroid at a later date using a reasonable amount of telescope search time.
Also, many asteroids are detected at their brightest time, and they may fade in brightness rapidly. Similar to how the Moon goes between "full moon" and its smaller phases, asteroids go thru phases according to the angle of view from the Earth. Also, the distance between asteroids and Earth varies a lot in one month.
Unfortunately, the best telescopes are booked months in advance, some of them years in advance, those telescopes which are looking at distant objects and just happen to accidentally see an asteroid, too. If we wait more than a few days for a second viewing, good chance we won't find the asteroid. This led to telescopes being dedicated to asteroids.
The Earth's atmosphere is a big problem, because asteroids usually move across the sky to the horizon in about a month and it's hard to see near the horizon due to the thickness of the atmosphere and the horizon glow from manmade sources. Most asteroids near Earth spend most of their viewable time near the horizon. When the Moon is out, its glare further reduces the detectability of faint asteroids by ground based telescopes, especially near the horizon. (Many asteroids are detected when they are near the middle of the sky, and near "full asteroid" illumination.)
If we are to discover asteroids using a telescope above Earth's orbit where we can look in any direction at any time, 24 hours a day, we would have to budget and launch up a dedicated telescope for searching for asteroids and studying them. Popularly known telescopes in orbit are booked years in advance by very powerful interests, looking at distant objects in the universe, not asteroids. Also, its field of view is narrow, and we need wider angle views to find asteroids.
With dedicated asteroid telescopes, by current methods, an electronic camera automatically scans a section of the sky at different times, separated by around 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. The different star fields are recorded in a computer. The computer compares the images for points of light which have moved. Normally, it requires more than two exposures to distinguish a moving object from the effects of detector noise and cosmic rays. It has also been said that if the asteroid is very close to Earth, it could possibly travel a long enough distance in the sky in too short an amount of time so that there would be a chance it won't be detected, as the two points of light are too far apart on successive images for the computer to see them as related.
The best search time is when the moon is not out. Around full moon, the cameras often focus on following up on newly discovered objects. The atmosphere disperses a lot of light, which affects sensitive sensors underneath this "atmospheric ocean". (Clouds are also a downer, killing scheduled viewings.)
Amateur astronomers can help discover asteroids, as well as assist with followup observations of newly discovered asteroids to confirm them and help chart their orbits. Indeed, amateur astronomers are needed around the world. Japanese amateurs have been remarkably productive.
Indeed, one of the biggest limitations now seems to be on follow-ups.
All the results from all the survey groups, including discoveries of asteroids, are reported at the end of each night of observing to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which is responsible for the collection and dissemination of astrometric observations and orbits for minor planets and comets on behalf of the International Astronomical Union, as discussed elsewhere on this website. That information is public domain.
Infra-red vs. visible light telescopes
Asteroid searches are biased because asteroids are easiest to detect when they are lined up with the Earth and the Sun, and hence brightest -- similar to the "full moon", they are "full asteroid". If they don't happen to pass by in that way, but are seen in a phase (e.g., "half asteroid", analogous to half moon vs. full moon), they are less likely to be detected. This makes small asteroids as well as dark volatile rich asteroids even harder to detect.
One solution is an infra-red telescope, to detect asteroids by their heat. This method does not depend upon reflected sunlight, only heat radiated by the asteroid. The one big problem is that such a detector must be placed in orbit, above the atmosphere.
History of asteroid / NEO detection programs
There were a large number of asteroid detection and tracking programs from the 1980s to present, but only a few of the most productive and continuing programs are covered below, with an emphasis on recent and ongoing programs. Some are ground based, whereas others are satellite based. The main ones you see on the graph below are briefly introduced in the following text.
_ SpaceWatch Camera
The most pioneering modern electronic search program for asteroids and near Earth objects, which was the first to employ many new technologies used by later programs, has been the SpaceWatch Camera at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) in Tucson, Arizona. A ground based telescope founded in 1980, it has been operating continually to date, though some other, better funded programs have discovered more asteroids using key techniques developed by SpaceWatch.SpaceWatch
In the early 1990s, the US Congress got serious about the impact threat of asteroids, and started funding asteroid search programs, with the goal of finding the large, dangerous ones. There was no interest in detecting asteroids for possibly mining, but asteroid miners benefit nonetheless because many of these are also found. (Smaller ones, which are in much greater numbers, are just as attractive for mining.) It was mainly due to this major increase in government funding that the rate of discovery shot up so quickly in the mid-1990s in the above graph. (NASA doesn't even bother to extend that graph to the 1980-1995 range when SpaceWatch dominated the field.)
_ Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR)
The Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) was the largest and most rock solid asteroid detection and tracking program for most of its operational life between 1993 and 2008. It was a telescope located in the desert at White Sands, New Mexico, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, under funding and management by the United States Air Force and NASA. LINEAR
References and Footnotes:
Source: Catalina Sky Survey
LINEAR:
Source: LINEAR
LONEOS:
Source: LONEOS on WikipediaLONEOS on Wikipedia
Pan-STARRS:
Source: Pan-STARRS
SpaceWatch:
Source: SpaceWatch home page
Minor Planet Center
A technical website, the Minor Planet Center is the authority responsible for cataloging asteroids and comets. WISE NASA mission page
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite to detect asteroids by infrared technology NASA JPL site on WISE
Wide-field Infra-red Satellite Explorer (WISE) NEOSSat mission page, Canadian
Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat), Canadian, to search by infra-red NEO Detection Telescopes
This page lists the main telescopes around the world searching for NEOs, but you need to scroll down to the second half of the page. It is a page buried within the Minor Planet Center site also referenced here. Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) page, NASA
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is a telescope which operated in New Mexico, USA, from 2000 to 2008, taking photos of approximately 35% of the sky using 5 color filters (5 photos of each frame), whereby many asteroids were seen moving between the different color filter frames. Its primary mission was viewing distant objects in the universe. Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Wikipedia
Wikipedia coverage of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey B612 Foundation
B612 plans to launch a space telescope named Sentinel in December 2016 into a Venusian orbit to detect asteroids which could threaten Earth. A nonprofit founded in 2002 by astronauts and scientists, which depends on donations, its initial work was to develop asteroid deflection techniques. A goal is to someday alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled way, as an exercise which could be applied sometime to protect Earth. B612 foundation on Wikipedia
Wikipedia on the B612 Foundation Canada';s NEOSSat asteroid detection satellite
This is the official Canadian Space Agency's web page on NEOSSat. You are currently on this page: