Majorcan hunt for “dangerous” asteroid

COSTITX
BY the end of this month, the new robotic telescope system installed two months ago at the Astronomical Observatory (OAM) in Costitx on Majorca will have “hunted down” no less than 2'000 asteroids, one of them “potentially dangerous.”.

Observatory director, Salvador Sanchez said yesterday that the new installations put Majorca at the forefront of international astronomy. On a clear night, the “asteroid tracker” which has been designed completely by the OAM is capable of detecting up to 100 new asteroids - a capacity, said Sanchez, which other centres without such state-of-the-art equipment would need five years to achieve.

The telescopes are capable of homing in on expanses measuring thousands of square degrees across the sky and at the same time, keeping a check on the movement of asteroids which are bigger than sixty metres in diamater and registering their “precise” position in real time.

Specifically, such capacity, together with the exactness that the equipment measures the orbit of the asteroids, has recently enabled scientists to detect one which is “potentially dangerous.” This asteroid has been christened “2008 OO” and is described as being in orbit “very close” to the Earth. According to NASA's “Sentry System” the asteroid has a remote possibility of crashing into our planet in 2010. “2008 OO” - detected by scientists on Majorca - has now been added to a global list of nearly 900 asteroids which have been categorised as “potentially dangerous.” Sanchez said that scientists must now track its movements for always to monitor whether or not it poses a real risk to the Earth.

These advanced robotic telescopes which are operated through remote control are currently set up in Spain not just on Majorca but also in Sagra (Granada) on the mainland. Two other installations are in the offing - the OAM confirmed yesterday that over the coming months Minorca and Ibiza will also be provided with the cutting edge tracking equipment and will be 100 percent operational by next summer. Sanchez furthered that the observatory centres are to be located in “really beautiful” locations on Minorca and Ibiza.

The technology is largely funded privately with contributions from the Balearic government and the Council of Majorca. The information it records is sent immediately to the International Astronomic Union (IAU) which has the task of co-ordinating data from these telescopes around the world.