Asteroid names for our Neorockers
The Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WG-SBN) has responsibility, under the authority of the IAU, for the names of small bodies in the Solar System. When a new asteroid is discovered, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) gives it a provisional designation. When the orbit is confirmed, throughout new observations, MPC gets to the object a permanent numerical designation and the
The Paolo Farinella Prize 2023
“From superbolides to meteorites: physics and dynamics of small planetary impactors”, this is the topic for the 2023 edition of the Paolo Farinella Prize. The deadline for submission is set on the 1st of May 2023. The prize is under the patronage of the European Planetary Science Society and it will be awarded during the joint EPSC/DPS (Department for Planetary Science)
NEOROCKS at EU ESA Workshop
NEOROCKS was out in force at the EU ESA Workshop on the Imminent Impactors, with a presentation from Neorockers from the Italian Space Agency and INFAF on the rapid response experiment. Presentations are available here and more details can be found on ASI's web site. Photo Nasa 2018 (approaching asteroid Bennu)
Didymos/Dimorphos observed from Observatoire de Haute Provence, France
Didymos/Dimorphos binary system, target of DART mission, was observed from Observatoire de Haute Provence on October 2, 2022. These observations occurred during the routinely observational time allocated for the NEOROCKS programme. Observations were performed by NEOROCKERS T. Hromakina (LESIA - Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique), A. Sonka (AIRA – Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy), and M. Birlan (IMCCE
Neorockers and Dart….Focus on DART – OPTiK
What has the University of Edinburgh being doing for DART? Many things, but let’s focus on DART – OPTiK. The DART – OPTiK team is a collaboration of researchers from the University of Edinburgh, STFC UKRI, Technical University of Kenya and the Turkana Basin Institute. Our Neorocker Colin Snodgrass is part of this team. With support from the Europlanet Coordination of Ground-based
Neorockers and Dart….Focus on University of Padova
What has the University of Padova being doing for DART? Professor Monica Lazzarin from the Department of Physics and Astronomy is DART Team Investigation member and she participates in the international campaign of ground based observations of Didymos and Dimorphos before and after the impact. Other Neorockers in her team are also involved. Fiorangela La Forgia is a member of the
Neorockers and Dart….Focus on CAS
What has Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) being doing for DART? Neorocker Petr Pravec is the "Data Analysis Coordinator". He was in charge of coordinating photometric observations taken during 2015 to 2021, analysis of the obtained light curve data, and doing their light curve decompositions that were input data to the Dimorphos orbit modelling. He does the
Neorockers and Dart….Focus on LICIACUBE
What have Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica INAF and Italian Space Agency ASI being doing for DART? Many things, but let’s focus on LICIACube (Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids). LICIACube is a space mission of ASI, and part of the NASA DART. LICIACube was hosted as secondary spacecraft during all DART’s interplanetary cruise, being then released by its dispenser before the
Neorockers and Dart….Focus on IAC
What has Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) being doing for DART? Neorocker Julia de Leon, planetary scientist at the IAC, is coordinating (together with Dr. Simone Ieva, from INAF) the Characterisation part of the Observations Working Group. Right now, she is not at her office in the Canary Islands, but in Chile, as she will be observing the DART impact
Nearly DART time…
For the first time ever, planetary defence teams are attempting to deliberately collide with a target asteroid, in order to change its speed and path. This is DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), the first ever mission to dedicated to investigating and demonstrating a method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact. It has potentially HUGE