One night stand (astronomy)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In astronomy, a one-night stand (ONS) describes an orbit of an asteroid around the sun that is observed only in one night . From the few observations, no assignment to the known orbital elements of a minor planet can be made, nor can the astronomical body be found again later. The designation is based on the one-night stand as a one-time sexual relationship.

The term one-night stand was coined by Brian G. Marsden from the Minor Planet Center to describe observations of minor planets that are only available from one night. These positions cannot be assigned to a known asteroid or comet , nor can the future position be calculated due to the small arc of the orbit .

In 2014, 3 million ONS records were listed in the Minor Planet Center compared to fewer than 400,000 asteroids that were numbered and 250,000 asteroids that could be detected in one or two oppositions .

literature

  • PASQUALE TRICARICO: DETECTION EFFICIENCY OF ASTEROID SURVEYS . In: Astrophysics. Solar and Stellar Astrophysics . 2015, arxiv : 1511.07659v2 .
  • Robert Jedicke et al .: Surveys, Astrometric Follow-up & Population Statistics . In: Astrophysics. Solar and Stellar Astrophysics . 2015, arxiv : 1503.04272v1 .