Related papers: Asteroid 2023 NT1: A Cautionary Tale
Robust impact monitoring of near-Earth objects is an essential task of planetary defense. Current systems such as NASA's Sentry-II, the University of Pisa's CLOMON2, and ESA's Aegis have been highly successful, but independent approaches…
Comet C/2013 A1 (siding Spring) will experience a high velocity encounter with Mars on October 19, 2014 at a distance of 135,000 km +- 5000 km from the planet center. We present a comprehensive analysis of the trajectory of both the comet…
The study of small ($<$300 m) near-Earth objects (NEOs) is important because they are more closely related than larger objects to the precursors of meteorites that fall on Earth. Collisions of these bodies with Earth are also more frequent.…
Large or even medium sized asteroids impacting the Earth can cause damage on a global scale. Existing and planned concepts for finding near-Earth objects (NEOs) with diameter of 140 m or larger would take ~15-20 years of observation to find…
Asteroid 2024 BX1 was the eighth asteroid that was discovered shortly before colliding with the Earth. The associated bolide was recorded by dedicated instruments of the European Fireball Network and the AllSky7 network on 2024 January 21…
We extend the most recent orbital and absolute magnitude Near Earth Object (NEO) model (Granvik et al., 2018) to provide a statistical description of NEO geometric albedos. Our model is calibrated on NEOWISE albedo data for the NEO…
Large potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) are capable of causing a global catastrophe in the event of a planetary collision. Thus, rapid assessment of such an object's physical characteristics is crucial for determining its potential…
With the NEOWISE portion of the \emph{Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer} (WISE) project, we have carried out a highly uniform survey of the near-Earth object (NEO) population at thermal infrared wavelengths ranging from 3 to 22 $\mu$m,…
Asteroids of size larger than 0.15 km generally do not have periods smaller than 2.2 hours, a limit known as cohesionless spin barrier. This barrier can be explained by the cohesionless rubble-pile structure model. There are few exceptions…
On 7th August 2019, an impact flash lasting $\sim1$s was observed on Jupiter. The video of this event was analysed to obtain the lightcurve and determine the energy release and initial mass. We find that the impactor released a total energy…
On 27 December 2024, near-Earth object (NEO) 2024 YR$_4$ was discovered by the ATLAS survey and identified as a virtual impactor. A few weeks later, it eventually reached level 3 on the Torino Scale and was the first and only asteroid to be…
Context. The discovery and tracking of 2018 LA marks only the third instance in history that the parent body of a fireball has been identified before its eventual disintegration in our atmosphere. The subsequent recovery of meteorites from…
We present visible spectroscopic observations of a near-earth object (NEO) 2012 DA14. The asteroid 2012 DA14 came close to the surface of the Earth on February 15, 2013 at a distance of 27,700 km. Its estimated diameter is around 45 m. The…
Venus has three known co-orbitals: (322756) 2001 CK32, 2002 VE68 and 2012 XE133. The first two have absolute magnitudes 18 < H < 21. The third one, significantly smaller at H = 23.4 mag, is a recent discovery that signals the probable…
The New Horizons spacecraft's nominal trajectory crosses the planet's satellite plane at $\sim 10,000\ \rm{km}$ from the barycenter, between the orbits of Pluto and Charon. I have investigated the risk to the spacecraft based on…
The Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) 2024 PT5 is on an Earth-like orbit which remained in Earth's immediate vicinity for several months at the end of 2024. PT5's orbit is challenging to populate with asteroids originating from the Main Belt and is…
The surfaces of airless bodies such as asteroids are exposed to many phenomena that can alter their physical properties. Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission, has demonstrated how complex the surface of a small body can be. In 2019…
Dynamical models of the asteroid delivery from the main belt suggest that the current impact flux of diameter D>10 km asteroids on the Earth is 0.5-1 per Gyr. Studies of the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) population find a much higher flux, with…
Laser ablation of a Near-Earth Object (NEO) on a collision course with Earth produces a cloud of ejecta which exerts a thrust on the NEO, deflecting it from its original trajectory. Ablation may be performed from afar by illuminating an…
We estimate the total population of near-Earth objects (NEOs) in the Solar System, using an extensive, `Solar System to pixels' fake-asteroid simulation to debias detections of real NEOs by the ATLAS survey. Down to absolute magnitudes…