Asteroid-Hunting Algorithm Spots A Potentially Hazardous 600-Ft Near-Earth Space Rock
Scientists and astronomers around the world are always on the lookout for space rocks that could potentially crash into Earth one day. While missions like NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) are looking at ways to defend Earth against possible future asteroid impacts, others are focused on improving the ability to be able to detect when and which asteroids might pose an actual risk. HelioLinc3D, a next-generation algorithm developed for such detections, has proven capable of identifying near-Earth asteroids with "fewer and more dispersed" observations than its predecessors.
"By demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of the software that Rubin will use to look for thousands of yet-unknown potentially hazardous asteroids, the discovery of 2022 SF289 makes us all safer," remarked Rubin scientist Ari Heinze, the principal developer of HelioLinc3D.
While the asteroid that was detected, dubbed 2022 SF289, by Heliolinc3D poses no risk to Earth in the foreseeable future, a good many other celestial bodies are considered near-Earth objects (NEO). Older methods of detecting these objects have indicated there are nearly 2,400 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA), but scientists project there are many more that have yet to be found.
A system software team at the University of Washington are the ones responsible for the development of HelioLinc3D, a code that will help enable Rubin to be able to detect PHA with fewer observations. This will help scientists and astronomers detect PHA that might have escaped detection using the earlier methods, perhaps providing the needed time to prepare if one ever does pose a real risk of impacting Earth and causing mass destruction.
"Any survey will have difficulty discovering objects like 2022 SF289 that are near its sensitivity limit, but HelioLinc3D shows that it is possible to recover these faint objects as long as they are visible over several nights," explained Larry Denneau, lead ATLAS astronomer. He added, "This in effect gives us a 'bigger, better' telescope."
Mario Juric, Director of the DiRAC Institute, says that this is just a "small taste" of what can be expected by the upcoming Rubin Observatory and the HelioLinc3D algorithm. He continues, "But more broadly, it's a preview of the coming era of data-intensive astronomy. From HelioLinc3D to AI-assisted codes, the next decade of discovery will be a story of advancement in algorithms as much as in new, large, telescopes."
