Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Most are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This area of our Solar System is known as the Asteroid Belt. However, the orbits of some asteroids bring them much closer to Earth. These are known as Near Earth Objects or NEOs.
Astronomers track NEOs in case they could be a threat to our planet in the future. In this project, you will learn how to identify an asteroid in a set of telescope images, use Go Observing to request observations of a NEO, and search the data to identify its position.
By the end of this activity you will:
- Know how to use image software to open, view and analyse data
- Have used Go Observing to request observations of a NEO
- Have searched for asteroids yourself
- Have measured the positions of any NEOs you detect
To complete this activity you will need:
- Access to Go Observing through your Schools’ Observatory log in
- The Asteroid Watch research project webpages
- Online access to AstroLab
- The example data of asteroid 138205 (2000 EZ148)
- The Asteroid Position Table
Image
Credit
This work
by NASA/JPL-Caltech
is licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal