LONEOS
LONEOS is an acronym for Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (English for Lowell Observatory - search for objects close to the earth ).
The project was launched in 1993 and served the semi- or fully automatic search for near-Earth objects (Engl. Near-Earth object , NEO). The orbit of these objects, especially near-Earth asteroids, can bring them close to Earth .
The search began in 1998 with a 60 cm Schmidt telescope and should find around 2,000 near-Earth objects in ten years. The first discovery was made on June 18, 1998. LONEOS was discontinued at the end of February 2008. The data obtained were also evaluated using the Sentry surveillance system .
The impact of an asteroid larger than 100 meters can be of regional importance. This can be expected approximately every 100,000 years. In the current decade one would like to record all potential near-earth objects that are larger than one kilometer. Of the two million asteroids of this size, that should be around 1,000. Down to a size of 100 m there are more than eleven times as many.
On October 15, 2003 LONEOS managed to find the planetoid (69230) Hermes, which had been missing for 66 years . At that time it flew by 1.5 times the lunar distance, was estimated at 1,200 m, but was lost after only five days. A precise orbit determination now showed that Hermes flew past 1.6 times the lunar distance again in 1942 . Hermes is one to two km in size and passed the earth at a distance of eleven times, on November 4, 2003 in 7 million km. The future course of the orbit depends, among other things, on the orbital disruptions when encountering Venus .
Another ten search programs are currently running in the USA, Europe and East Asia, which find several “NEOs” from 100 meters to 1 km in size every night. The most successful program is called LINEAR and works with a 1 m reflector telescope and CCD automatic.
Encounters at a lunar distance and a time frame of several decades are considered the limit of the usual attention for researchers.
Edward LG Bowell played a key role in setting up the LONEOS program .
See also
- Near Earth Asteroid Tracking ( NEAT )
- Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research ( LINEAR )
- OCA - DLR Asteroid Suvvey ( ODAS )