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Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking
Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) was a program run by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, surveying the sky for near-Earth objects. NEAT was conducted from December 1995 until April 2007, at GEODSS on Hawaii (Haleakala-NEAT; 566), as well as at Palomar Observatory in California (Palomar-NEAT; 644). With the discovery of more than 40 thousand minor planets, NEAT has been one of the most successful programs in this field, comparable to the Catalina Sky Survey, LONEOS and Mount Lemmon Survey. NEAT was the successor to the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS). History The original principal investigator was Eleanor F. Helin, with co-investigators Steven H. Pravdo and David L. Rabinowitz. NEAT had a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Air Force to use a GEODSS telescope located on Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii. GEODSS stands for Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance and these wide field Air Force telescopes were designed to optically observ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey
The Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS) was an astronomical survey, initiated by American astronomers Eleanor Helin and Eugene Shoemaker at the U.S Palomar Observatory, California, in 1973. The program is responsible for the discovery of 95 near-Earth Objects including 17 comets, while the Minor Planet Center directly credits PCAS with the discovery of 20 numbered minor planets during 1993–1994. PCAS ran for nearly 25 years until June 1995. It had an international extension, INAS, and was the immediate predecessor of the outstandingly successful NEAT program. Notable discoveries The first NEO discovered by PACS was (5496) 1973 NA, an Apollo asteroid with an exceptional orbital inclination of 68 °, the most highly inclined minor planet known until 1999. In 1976, Eleanor Helin discovered 2062 Aten, the first of a new class of asteroids called the Aten asteroids with small orbits that are never far from Earth's orbit. As a result, these objects have a particular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor F
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal dialect, Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It was the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introduced to England by Eleanor of Aquitaine, who came to marry Henry II of England, King Henry II. It was also borne by Eleanor of Provence, who became queen consort of England as the wife of Henry III of England, King Henry III, and Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I. The name was popular in the Anglosphere during the first half of the 20th century, but declined in use until the late 20th century and first decades of the 21st century. It has been a well-used name in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand during the 2020s. Eleanor was the third most popular name for newborn girls born to White Americans, white mothers in the U.S. state of Virginia in 2024, but was a less popular name for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). Asteroids are rocky, metallic, or icy bodies with no atmosphere, and are broadly classified into C-type asteroid, C-type (carbonaceous), M-type asteroid, M-type (metallic), or S-type asteroid, S-type (silicaceous). The size and shape of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from small rubble piles under a kilometer across to Ceres (dwarf planet), Ceres, a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter. A body is classified as a comet, not an asteroid, if it shows a coma (tail) when warmed by solar radiation, although recent observations suggest a continuum between these types of bodies. Of the roughly one million known asteroids, the greatest number are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, approximately 2 to 4 astronomical unit, AU ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
136199 Eris
Eris (minor-planet designation: 136199 Eris) is the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in the scattered disk and has a high-eccentricity orbit. Eris was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory–based team led by Mike Brown and verified later that year. It was named in September 2006 after the GrecoRoman goddess of strife and discord. Eris is the ninth-most massive known object orbiting the Sun and the sixteenth-most massive overall in the Solar System (counting moons). It is also the largest known object in the Solar System that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Eris has been measured at in diameter; its mass is 0.28% that of the Earth and 27% greater than that of Pluto, although Pluto is slightly larger by volume. Both Eris and Pluto have a surface area that is comparable to that of Russia or South America. Eris has one large known moon, Dysnomia. In February 2016, Eris's distan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dwarf Planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which for decades was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept was adopted in 2006. Dwarf planets are capable of being geologically active, an expectation that was borne out in 2015 by the ''Dawn (spacecraft), Dawn'' mission to and the ''New Horizons'' mission to Pluto. planetary geology, Planetary geologists are therefore particularly interested in them. Astronomers are in general agreement that at least the List of possible dwarf planets#Likeliest dwarf planets, nine largest candidates are dwarf planets – in rough order of diameter, , , , , , , , , and . A considerable uncertainty remains over the tenth largest candidate , which may thus be co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
90377 Sedna
Sedna ( minor-planet designation: 90377 Sedna) is a dwarf planet in the outermost reaches of the Solar System, orbiting the Sun far beyond the orbit of Neptune. Discovered in 2003, the frigid planetoid is one of the reddest known among Solar System bodies. Detailed spectroscopic analysis has revealed Sedna's surface to be a mixture of the solid ices of water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and ethane (C2H6), along with occasional sedimentary deposits of methane (CH4)-derived, vividly reddish-colored organic tholins, a surface chemical makeup somewhat similar to those of other trans-Neptunian objects. Sedna has no detectable atmosphere, as its temperature is far too low for solids to volatilize. Within range of uncertainty, it is tied with the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt as the largest dwarf planet not known to have a moon. With a diameter of roughly 1,000 km, it is nearly the size of Tethys around Saturn. Owing to its lack of known moons, the Keplerian laws of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
50000 Quaoar
Quaoar ( minor-planet designation: 50000 Quaoar) is a ringed dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of many icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. It has an elongated ellipsoidal shape with an average diameter of , about half the size of the dwarf planet Pluto, and is a possible dwarf planet. The object was discovered by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory on 4 June 2002. Quaoar's surface contains crystalline water ice and ammonia hydrate, which suggests that it might have experienced cryovolcanism. A small amount of methane is present on its surface, which is only retained by the largest Kuiper belt objects. Quaoar has one known moon, Weywot, which was discovered by Brown in February 2007. Both objects were named after mythological figures from the Native American Tongva people in Southern California. Quaoar is the Tongva creator deity and Weywot is his son. In 2023, astronomers announced the discovery of two thin rings orb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Oschin Telescope
The Samuel Oschin telescope (), also called the Oschin Schmidt, is a Schmidt camera at the Palomar Observatory in northern San Diego County, California, United States. It consists of a Schmidt corrector plate and a (f/2.5) mirror. The instrument is strictly a camera; there is no provision for an eyepiece to look through it. It originally used and glass photographic plates. Since the focal plane is curved, these plates had to be preformed in a special jig before being loaded into the camera. Construction on the Schmidt telescope began in 1939 and it was completed in 1948. It was named the Samuel Oschin telescope in 1986. Before that it was just called the Schmidt. In the mid-1980s, the corrector plate was replaced using glass with less chromatic aberration, producing higher quality images over a broader spectrum. Between 2000 and 2001, it was converted to use a CCD imager. The corrector plate was recently replaced using glass that is transparent to a wider range of wavele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the smallest element that can be manipulated through software. Each pixel is a Sampling (signal processing), sample of an original image; more samples typically provide more accurate representations of the original. The Intensity (physics), intensity of each pixel is variable. In color imaging systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as RGB color model, red, green, and blue, or CMYK color model, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. In some contexts (such as descriptions of camera sensors), ''pixel'' refers to a single scalar element of a multi-component representation (called a ''photosite'' in the camera sensor context, although ''wikt:sensel, sensel'' is sometimes used), while in yet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charge-coupled Device
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a major technology used in digital imaging. Overview In a CCD image sensor, pixels are represented by Doping (semiconductor), p-doped metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitors. These MOS capacitors, the basic building blocks of a CCD, are biased above the threshold for inversion when image acquisition begins, allowing the conversion of incoming photons into electron charges at the semiconductor-oxide interface; the CCD is then used to read out these charges. Although CCDs are not the only technology to allow for light detection, CCD image sensors are widely used in professional, medical, and scientific applications where high-quality image data are required. In applications with less exacting quality demands, such as consumer and pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics. Hawaii consists of 137 volcanic islands that comprise almost the entire Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian archipelago (the exception, which is outside the state, is Midway Atoll). Spanning , the state is Physical geography, physiographically and Ethnology, ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. Hawaii's ocean coastline is consequently the List of U.S. states and territories by coastline, fourth-longest in the U.S., at about . The eight main islands, from northwest to southeast, are Niihau, Niihau, Kauai, Kauai, Oahu, Oahu, Molokai, Molokai, Lanai, Lānai, Kahoʻolawe, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii (island), Hawaii, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maui
Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of Maui County, Hawaii, Maui County's five islands, along with Molokai, Molokai, Lanai, Lānai, Kahoʻolawe, Kahoolawe, and Molokini. In 2020, Maui had a population of 168,307, the third-highest of the Hawaiian Islands, behind Oahu, Oahu and Hawaii (island), Hawaii Island. Kahului, Hawaii, Kahului is the largest census-designated place (CDP) on the island, with a 2020 population of 28,219. It is Maui's commercial and financial hub. Wailuku, Hawaii, Wailuku is the county seat and was the third-largest CDP . Other significant populated areas include Kihei, Hawaii, Kīhei (including Wailea, Hawaii, Wailea and Makena, Hawaii, Makena in the Kihei Town CDP), Lahaina, Hawaii, Lāhainā (including Kaanapali, Kāanapali and Kapalua in the Lāhainā T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
