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24 October 2003

SAS McCarthy Observatory Discovers Three New Asteroids

by Monty Robson

Editor's Note: We'd like to offer our personal congratulations to the West Connecticut Chapter of SAS for their unswerving dedictation, vision, and hard work in building, and supervising the McCarthy Observatory, and for the continuing work as mentors to this facility's young scientists. -sg

In the early morning hours of 14 October 2003 Universal Time (late in the evening Monday, October 13th Eastern time) while making urgently needed observations of the newly discovered Potentially Hazardous Asteroid designated 2003 TH2, Observatory staff volunteers discovered three asteroids previously unknown to science.

Two of the discoveries were immediately reported to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the world’s repository for the orbital data of minor planets (asteroids) and comets. On 16 October these two asteroids were observed again from the McCarthy Observatory and their positions reported to the MPC. Newly discovered objects are reported to the MPC with the finding site’s temporary designation. When the MPC is convinced the objects are in fact new asteroids they assign a Provisional Designation to the objects. These first two discoveries are now known as 2003 TG10 and 2003 TH10. They both seem to be normal main asteroid belt objects and have a current apparent brightness of about 18th magnitude; to put their brightness into perspective they are both more than 60,000 times fainter than the dimmest object that can be seen by the unaided eye under ideal conditions.

The third discovery was reported to the MPC last night and it has been given the Provisional designation 2003 TO13.

Asteroid research is a critically important new field of research, one that the McCarthy Observatory is well equipped for and has developed some expertise in. Only in the last thirty years or so have scientists begun to realize the threat we face from highly energetic cosmic impacts. Most now think the mass extinction that occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary was caused by a colossal asteroid or comet impact. This impact, 65 million years ago, resulted in the demise of the dinosaurs.

There is no reason for alarm or fear. Impacts have occurred in the past, are occurring now, and will continue to happen in the future; this is a fact of life due to the make-up of the solar system. But large, damaging impacts are rare, and we may be able to prevent them in the near future. The key is to find these potential impactors before they find us. It has been less than ten years since observatories dedicated to finding these asteroids have been in operation and more are under construction or being planned now.

When an asteroid is newly discovered its orbit is somewhat uncertain. If its preliminary orbit shows it may come close to Earth then the orbit is projected at least a century into the future. Very often these projections show a greater than zero chance of collision with the Earth. These objects are then put on Risk Pages and are called Virtual Impactors. The urgent call goes out for observatories to determine the object’s position. So far all of these asteroids have been determined not to be a future threat to us when enough observations are received to refine their orbits. There have been scares, one again last month with asteroid 2003 QQ47, but we now know it will not meet with the Earth.

This is a good system and it works. We need more observatories that are dedicated to finding the threatening objects to give us enough lead time warning so that we can try to divert the object from its collision trajectory. The McCarthy Observatory is the flagship project of the Western Connecticut Chapter of the Society for Amateur Scientists and is primarily an educational facility, but it has and will continue to make meaningful contributions to finding threatening objects and to refining their orbits. To date this Observatory has accurately reported 106 Near-Earth Asteroid positions to the MPC. All have been accepted and used for orbit refinement. You can see our record on the Near-Earth Object Dynamic Site at: http://newton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/neodys/neoibo?sites:932;main

With more than 6,000 visitors in less than three years of operations, the McCarthy Observatory must rank among the region’s top attractions. These new asteroid discoveries add to the long list of the facility's accomplishments, which include a winner of the world’s largest pre-college science fair this year.

The John J. McCarthy Observatory is owned by the New Milford Public Schools. It is staffed by unpaid volunteers and is financially independent of both the school system and the Town of New Milford. The Observatory depends on contributions from the public to fund operations, maintenance, and enhancements to the facility. The Observatory is always open, free of charge, to the public whenever staff members are present.

For further information see our web site: http://mccarthyobservatory.org, or call 860-354-1595, or email to: mail@mccarthyobservatory.org, or write to McCarthy Observatory, P.O. Box 1144, New Milford, CT 06776.