Posted on 07/23/2022 11:09:03 AM PDT by BenLurkin
[T]he most important asteroid discoveries are now being made in twilight, when astronomers are able to look close to the horizon — and close to the sun — for little-known asteroids that orbit inside the orbits of Earth, Venus and even Mercury.
That includes the first asteroid with an orbit interior to Venus and one with the shortest-known orbital period around the sun, both of which have been unearthed in the last two years. It also includes "city-killers," asteroids large enough that if they were to impact Earth, the damage would be severe.
DECam and another telescope are making it much easier to probe a previously hidden world of asteroids that until now have been obscured by the sun's glare.
About 30 years of methodical searching of the skies have resulted in finding most asteroids 3 miles (5 kilometers) across. Models and surveys suggest that more than 90% of "planet-killer" Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) (those larger than 0.6 miles, or 1 km) have been found, but only about half of the "city-killer" NEOs (those larger than 460 feet, or 140 meters) are known.
So where are the rest? "There are going to be others either close to the sun, so hard to observe, or on aliasing orbits with Earth that makes them hard to find by the normal survey," Sheppard said. Their eccentric orbits make them only visible in twilight skies.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
So maybe one could be directed at a city infested with Monkeypox?
Would prefer it strike the City of Government-Pox.
In other news, water is wet.
And astronomers use telescopes, too. Bet you didn’t know that.
Like i said
Bullseye on dCeee
Can we have input on which city gets taken out? I have some ideas.
How do these asteroids know where our cities are?
You mean a telescope pointed at Uranus? Somebody had to say it...
-PJ
What I am saying is that the solar system is full of rock flying around in it and it shouldn’t be a surprise that we would find more when instruments improve or we look in a place that we have never looked before.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/william-r-corliss/239563/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Corliss
"Victims of plane crashes are identified by their dental records. But if they don't know who *you* are, how do they know who your dentist is?" -- Robert Schimmel
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
