AMATEUR ASTRONOMY:

ASTEROID DEFENSE:

Some, who have not been fans of this blog for years, may find it strange that I would post what follows below. It is not strange in the world of Molly's Blog. I am an amateur astronomer, and I very much support the space programs of various countries. I watch the progression of the constellations and the planets across the skies, and I am thrilled to see them. What follows is one of the reasons. Whatever one's ideological beliefs they would indeed be destroyed by a planetary catastrophe. Such catastrophes have happened in the the past, and they will happen in the future unless we are able to prevent them. This is an inevitable truth. The following, from the Planetary Society, gives their idea of "planetary defense".

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Projects
Mirror Bees: Planetary Defense
A New Way to Deflect a Dangerous Asteroid
What do we do if an asteroid is found to be on a collision course with Earth? At this point, the answer is not clear, so The Planetary Society is partnering with researchers to discover ways to protect Earth when we one-day find a dangerous space rock.

We're working with a team at the University of Glasgow in Scotland to study a new technique which uses concentrated light to gently move an asteroid -- a project we call "Mirror Bees."
The researchers at the University of Glasgow, under the leadership of Massimiliano Vasile, became interested in this approach when they set out to compare nine approaches to planetary defense. To their surprise, one of their results was that Mirror Bees would work more quickly and effectively than all but nuclear warheads. (But unlike the use of nuclear explosions, there would be no risk of breaking a huge asteroid into any number of equally deadly smaller asteroids, nor would the procedure face as many political and bureaucratic hurdles.)
So just what are Mirror Bees?
This new technique involves many small spacecraft -- each carrying a mirror -- swarming around a dangerous asteroid. The spacecraft could precisely tilt their mirrors to focus sunlight onto a tiny spot on the asteroid, vaporizing the rock and metal, and creating a jet plume of super-heated gases and debris. Alternatively, the satellites could contain powerful lasers pumped by sunlight, and the lasers could be used to vaporize the rock. The asteroid would become the fuel for its own rocket -- and slowly, the asteroid would move into a new trajectory.

With your help today, The Planetary Society can step in to make a huge difference in this crucial area of space science.

We need advanced and creative thinking to deflect Earth-threatening asteroids and comets. The "Mirror Bees" system is one promising way.
Help make it happen!
Major questions still remain about this technique. For example, will the plume of superheated gasses ejected from an asteroid dissipate, or will it block sunlight to the mirrors?

Would the debris settle on the satellite mirrors?

Can the asteroid's rotation be dealt with effectively?

Will the gas plumes be enough to deflect the asteroid?

The Planetary Society is stepping in to fund a series of laboratory experiments to answer these and other questions. Vasile's group is working with Ian Watson and the laser lab of the University of Glasgow's Mechanical Engineering Department to devise some ingenious small-scale experiments. We'll be funding equipment, supplies, and a graduate student dedicated to working on the experiments.

Only through these types of studies, as well as additional theoretical research, can the details of this technique be worked out and understood. If it pans out, it will be a rapid, effective, and safe option to use against the asteroid that inevitably will come Earth's way.

VIEWING VESTA AT ITS BRIGHTEST:

The asteroid Vesta, the brightest of the asteroids, will be visible to the naked eye at an apparent magnitude of 5.4. The human eye can see down to about 6th magnitude so it is possible to view Vesta in ideal viewing conditions without the use of binoculars or a telescope. The asteroid will fade to magnitude 6.0 by July 1st and to 6.7 by August 1st. The location of Vesta can be found from the above two charts. If you are facing southeast you should be able to find the planet Jupiter. Vesta will be a bit to the north and west of this planet through the next few months. Vesta is now at its brightest in 18 years. The brightness is due to a number of factors. The asteroid reached opposition on May 31st. This combined with the fact that its perigee(closest point to Earth) is only a few weeks distant and a particularly favourable tilt make this one of the best times to view Vesta.

Vesta, with a diameter of about 530 km, is the second largest asteroid after Ceres (now classified as a "dwarf planet" along with Pluto. Because of its uniquely bright surface it is actually the one more easily seen without optical aids. Ceres is visible to the naked eye only in exceptional circumstances. Vesta is about 4 times as bright as Ceres.

Vesta was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29th, 1807. Vesta was the fourth asteroid to be found and hence it is sometimes referred to as 4 Vesta . No further asteroids were found after Vesta for 38 years. The German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss named the asteroid after Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth , home and family. Vesta was somewhat equivalent to the Greek goddess Hestia, but her worship predated Greek influence on Roman mythology. Vesta was a rather shadowy figure, never depicted and never mentioned in other myth cycles. Each Roman city had a public hearth sacred to Vesta with a fire that was never allowed to go out. When a new colony was to be established coals from the mother city's hearth were sent with the colonists to kindle the new city's public hearth. Rome's fire burned until 391 when it was extinguished by Emperor Theodosius I when he forbade public pagan worship.

Romans traditionally both began and ended their meals with a prayer to Vesta. The sacred flame of Vesta was tended in Rome by the Vestales, better known as the vestal virgins. in imitation of the goddess they took 30 year vows of chastity and lived together in a house near the Forum. If any of these priestesses broke her vow of chastity she was buried alive in the Campus Sceleris (Field of Wickedness). Vesta's feast, called the Vestalia, was held from June 7th to June 15th each year.

While Vesta is about the same diameter as another asteroid Pallas it is considerably more massive. While the general shape of Vesta is that of gravitationally formed spheroid it is not classified as a dwarf planet like Ceres because of an enormous crater near the south pole with a width 80% of that of the entire asteroid. The rim of the crater and a central protrusion are additional arguments against the reclassification of Vesta. This whole matter, however, is still under debate. This huge southern crater is the likely site of the HED meteorites which have been shown to come from Vesta. This asteroid is one of only 4 extraterrestrial bodies (the others are the Moon, Mars and Comet Wild2) from which we have physical samples.

The next few weeks are an unique opportunity to actually view an asteroid. Good luck and happy searching.