A group of 632 main-belt asteroids (178 previously known objects and 454 unknown objects) have been identified in archival images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Citizen scientists from around the world contributed to the identification of this batch of asteroids. Professional astronomers combine volunteer efforts with machine learning algorithms to identify asteroids.
This Hubble image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks like someone drew on it with a white marker. In fact, it is a combination of temporal exposures of foreground asteroids crossing Hubble’s field of view, light-bombing observations of the Milky Way. Multiple exposures were made of this galaxy, as evidenced by the dashed pattern. The asteroid appears to be following a curved trajectory due to parallax: Because Hubble is not stationary but orbits the Earth, this gives the illusion that the faint asteroid is following a curved trajectory. move. The unknown asteroid is located within the solar system’s asteroid belt and is therefore 10 trillion times closer to Hubble than the background galaxy. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/Pablo Garca Martn, UAM/Joseph DePasquale, STScI/Alex Filippenko, University of California, Berkeley.
The eight major planets around the Sun were formed more than 4 billion years ago by clearing debris from the vast disk of dust and gas surrounding the Sun.
This is common during the birth of planets, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was the first telescope to optically observe disk-like disks around newborn stars, providing a glimpse into the formation of the solar system.
Four billion years later, planetary construction sites are still filled with leftover debris.
Most ancient space debris – asteroids – can be found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt.
Dr. Pablo Garca Martín, an astronomer at the Autonomous University of Madrid, said we are looking more deeply at a smaller number of main-belt asteroids.
We were surprised to see such a large number of candidate objects.
There are some hints that this population exists, but now we are confirming it by using samples of random asteroid populations obtained from the entire Hubble archive.
This is important for gaining insight into models of the evolution of the solar system.
Because Hubble orbits Earth so quickly, it can capture lingering asteroids through their trails in Hubble exposures.
An asteroid leaves a streak across the image as viewed through an Earth-based telescope.
The asteroid’s photobomb showed a distinctly curved trajectory in the photo, ruining the Hubble exposure.
As Hubble orbits the Earth, it changes perspective as it observes asteroids, which move along their orbits.
By knowing Hubble’s position during observations and measuring the curvature of the streaks, scientists can determine the asteroid’s distance and estimate the shape of its orbit.
Most of the captured asteroids live in the main belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Their brightness was measured by Hubble’s sensitive camera. Comparing their brightness with distance allows an estimate of size.
The faintest asteroid in the survey is about 40 million times less bright than the faintest star visible to the human eye.
Dr. Moen said the positions of asteroids change over time, so you can’t find them just by entering coordinates because at different times, they might not be there.
As astronomers, we don’t have time to look at all the asteroid images.
So we came up with the idea of partnering with more than 10,000 citizen science volunteers to take a closer look at the massive Hubble archive.
Results appear in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
_____
Pablo Garca Martin et al.. 2024. Physical properties of newly discovered asteroids. Auxiliary and auxiliary 683, A122; Number: 10.1051/0004-6361/202346771
#Astronomers #Discover #Asteroids #Main #Belt #Science #News
Image Source : www.sci.news