Indian telescope in Ladakh captures building-sized asteroid zooming by Earth
- In Reports
- 03:45 PM, Jul 27, 2024
- Myind Staff
A stunning observation was made by the GROWTH-India Telescope when it caught a building-sized asteroid, measuring 116 meters, as it approached Earth at its closest point.
The telescope, housed at the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, Ladakh, tracked the asteroid, named 2011 MW1, as it travelled at a distance of just ten times the lunar distance.
2011 MW1, a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) that approached Earth at an incredible speed of 28,946 kilometres per hour, was identified.
Background stars appeared as streaks in the telescope's photos due to the asteroid's extremely fast speed. This observation is a component of the GROWTH-India project, a joint endeavour devoted to time-domain astronomy, encompassing the investigation of fast transients and variable sources throughout the universe.
Varun Bhalerao, an astronomer from IIT Bombay's Space Technology and Astrophysics Research (STAR) lab, posted the picture on social media site X.
With assistance from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) collaborated to build the GROWTH-India Telescope, which is the country's first fully robotic optical research telescope.
The Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH) is a multinational network of observatories that includes the GROWTH-India project. The goal of GROWTH is to continuously watch intriguing celestial phenomena. Because of the network's cooperative nature, observations are uninterrupted by daylight, facilitating the gathering of extensive data.
Observing variable sources and explosive transients, including near-Earth asteroids, is the main goal of the telescope.
The asteroid's successful tracking shows how the telescope can track and observe quickly moving objects in the sky. For the purpose of comprehending the behaviour of such objects and determining the possible threat that they might pose to Earth, this capacity is essential.
The telescope's cutting-edge imaging technology has allowed astronomers to gather precise information about the asteroid's composition and path. An international endeavour to track near-Earth objects and enhance our comprehension of their behaviour is facilitated by the observations made by the GROWTH-India Telescope.
Image source: IIA
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