United space in Europe
Asteroid in infrared
Enabling & Support

Asteroid in infrared

17/07/2013 524 views 9 likes 294917 ID
  • GIF 250KB [250.81 kB]

Thank you for liking

You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!

Infrared observations were obtained after Earth flyby of asteroid 2002 GT on 30 June 2013. In this image, acquired 22:22:07–23:47:20 UTC, the telescope is tracking the apparent motion of the asteroid so that the object remains in the middle of the field while the background stars appear to move (this technique is normally used to detect very faint and fast objects). The images were taken in J-band wavelength with an exposure time of 300s by the AZT-24 telescope at the observatory of Campo Imperatore. The AZT-24 is a Ritchey-Cretien telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 1.10 m, equipped with a near-infrared camera (wavelength range 1–2.5 μm).

The observations were coordinated by ESA’s asteroid centre in Italy, and should prove crucial for a future spacecraft rendezvous.

  • Campo Imperatore Observatory
  • Operations
  • Space Situational Awareness (SSA)
  • SSA
  • Italy
  • Observing
  • Asteroids
Asteroid
Enabling & Support

Asteroid

Image 2295 views 20 likes
Artist's impression of asteroids passing Earth
Enabling & Support

Asteroids passing Earth

Image 8130 views 68 likes
Asteroid 2002GT
Enabling & Support

Asteroid 2002GT

Image 557 views 2 likes
Asteroid 2002 GT
Enabling & Support

Asteroid 2002 GT

Image 672 views 7 likes
Asteroid 2016 WJ1
Enabling & Support

Asteroid 2016 WJ1

Image 844 views 8 likes