Spacewatch
Template:Short description Template:Infobox astronomical survey
| see Category:Discoveries by the Spacewatch project |
The Spacewatch Project is an astronomical survey that specializes in the study of minor planets, including various types of asteroids and comets at University of Arizona telescopes on Kitt Peak near Tucson, Arizona. The Spacewatch Project has been active longer than any other similar currently active programs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Spacewatch was founded in 1980 by Tom Gehrels and Robert S. McMillan, and is currently led by astronomer Melissa Brucker at the University of Arizona. Spacewatch uses three telescopes of apertures 0.9-m, 1.8-m, and 2.3-m. These telescopes are located on Kitt Peak, with the first two dedicated to the purpose of locating Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="McMillan et al 2015">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The 36 inch (0.9 meter) telescope on Kitt Peak has been in use by Spacewatch since 1984, and since 2000 the 72 inch (1.8 meter) Spacewatch telescope.<ref name=ScienceDaily2018>Template:Cite news</ref> Spacewatch's 1.8-meter telescope is the largest in the world that is used exclusively for asteroids and comets.<ref name="McMillan">Template:Cite conference</ref> It can find asteroids and comets anywhere from the space near Earth to regions beyond the orbit of Neptune and to do astrometry on the fainter of objects that are already known. The telescope uses a CCD camera at folded prime focus.<ref name=telescopes>Template:Cite web</ref>
The 0.9-meter telescope complements these deep observations using an array of four CCDs to cover a much larger field of view, 2.9 square degrees compared to the ~ 0.1 square degrees of the 1.8-meter.<ref name=telescopes></ref>
Each year, Spacewatch observes approximately 35 radar targets, 50 near-Earth objects, and 100 potential spacecraft rendezvous destinations. From 2013 to 2016, Spacewatch observed half of all NEOs and potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) observed by anyone in that time.<ref name="McMillan et al 2015" /> Template:As of, Spacewatch had discovered over 179,000 minor planets numbered by the Minor Planet Center.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
The 1.8 meter Spacewatch telescope and its building on Kitt Peak were dedicated on June 7, 1997 for the purpose of finding previously unknown asteroids and comets.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Since January 1 2003, Spacewatch has made ~2400 separate-night detections of Near-Earth Objects.<ref name="McMillan" />
There was an upgrade to the 0.9 meter which was funded by NASA and the Kirsch Foundation.
The Spacewatch Project is the longest-running of all present programs of astrometry of solar system objects, and was the first to use CCDs to survey the sky for comets and asteroids.<ref name="McMillan et al 2015" />
Spacewatch in action
Spacewatch conducted a survey that was proposed May 12, 2006, and accepted on November 13, 2006. This survey used data taken over 34 months by the University of Arizona’s Spacewatch Project based at Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak. Spacewatch revisited the same sky area every three to seven nights in order to track cohorts of main-belt asteroids. This survey discovered one new large Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) and detected six others. This proved that new sweeps of the sky are productive even if they have been previously examined simply due to the complexities of running large surveys over many nights and variable conditions.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Notable discoveries
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- Callirrhoe<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 5145 Pholus<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 9965 GNU<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 9885 Linux<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 9882 Stallman<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 9793 Torvalds<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 20000 Varuna<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 60558 Echeclus<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Mpl,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> target of JAXA's Hayabusa2 extended mission.
- 65803 Didymos,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> target of the DART mission
- Template:Mpl<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Mpl<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- (136617) 1994 CC<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- C/1992 J1<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- [[C/2011 KP36|Template:Mp]]Template:R
- 125P/Spacewatch<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 174567 Varda<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Mpl<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The project rediscovered 719 Albert, a long-lost asteroid.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>