The Siding Spring Survey (SSS) was a

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

search program that used the 0.5-metre Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It was the southern hemisphere counterpart of the

Catalina Sky Survey Catalina Sky Survey (CSS; obs. code: 703) is an astronomical survey to discover comets and asteroids. It is conducted at the Steward Observatory's Catalina Station, located near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. CSS focuses on the search ...

(CSS) located in the

Santa Catalina Mountains The Santa Catalina Mountains, commonly referred to as the Catalina Mountains or the Catalinas, are north and northeast of Tucson in Arizona, United States, on Tucson's north perimeter. The mountain range is the most prominent in the Tucson area, w ...

on Mount Bigelow, near

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The survey was the only professional search for dangerous asteroids being made in the Southern Hemisphere. SSS was jointly operated by the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

and the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

, with funding from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

. SSS (IAU observatory code E12) was located at Siding Spring Observatory (IAU observatory code 413) at , approximately north-west of Sydney at an altitude of about . Images of 30 seconds' exposure time were collected using a 4×4K

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 ...

at intervals and then compared with software. The survey ended in July 2013 after funding was discontinued.

Discoveries

Since 2004 the survey has discovered 400 potentially hazardous objects with a diameter greater than 100 m. In early January 2013,

Robert H. McNaught Robert H. McNaught (born in Scotland in 1956) is a Scottish-Australian astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University (ANU). He has collaborated with David J. Asher of the Armagh Observator ...

discovered a new comet named

C/2013 A1 C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is an Oort cloud comet discovered on 3 January 2013 by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory using the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. At the time of discovery it was 7.2 AU from the Sun and locat ...

using data collected while searching for asteroids.

List of discovered minor planets

References

External links

Siding Spring Survey
{{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System 2004 establishments in Australia 2013 disestablishments in Australia Astronomical surveys Asteroid surveys * Siding Spring Observatory University of Arizona

Discoveries

List of discovered minor planets

See also

References

External links