'Killer space rock' hunt to begin

A new telescope facility in Hawaii designed to search for asteroids and comets which could threaten Earth has been made operational.

The new Pan-STARRS 1 telescope is now up and running in Hawaii, it's a small telescope compared to some but has some amazing cutting edge technology installed including a very powerful camera:

"The facility boasts one of the biggest digital cameras of its type: a 1,400 megapixel (1.4 gigapixel) device that can photograph an area of the sky as large as 36 full Moons in a single exposure"

It's job will be to track not only NEO (near Earth Objects) and map large portions of the sky but supernovae also, It'll be interesting to see if they find anything not currently mapped and known about, I'll be keeping an eye on this telescopes observations..

Source

pan-starrs.

Thanks for the flag whoever that was, I just need two more flags to become a solid contributor…. Heh

On topic: I was looking at the Pan-Starrs website, it's quite an interesting site, it also has some pictures of the PS1 prototype instillation.


Pan-Starrs Instillation

Well i wont say its fate but i read this www.abovetopsecret.com... and the next thread i saw was this one.

All i can say is good timing thread posters

reply to post by des9996


Hi des, I would say that’s a bit of a coincidence, I didn’t read the thread before posting mine, the thread in question is really just scare mongering, I don’t see anyway humans could direct an asteroid big enough to cause mass extinction on a course for Earth, and who exactly are the ‘Arians’?

The new Pan-STARRS 1 telescope has been in the pipeline for some time now and has only just been commissioned for operation, sure it’s design is to track asteroids and NEO’s but I really don’t think it’s been built because of a reason (like they know an asteroid Is on it’s way) quite the contrary, it’s a safe guard against such an event.. Though what we would do if we did find a huge asteroid/planet on a collision course I really don’t know, it would give us time to dig I guess..



Thanks for the flags people, I'm now the proud owner of a Solid content contributor badge!

Sounds fascinating. A 1.4 gigapixel camera is no small feat – it's pretty amazing!

Now, if they find a killer asteroid what the heck do they actually plan to do about it? You see all these shows on the Science Channel talking about concepts that could work, but actually making them work is another thing entirely. Humans like to think they are the masters of the universe and can do anything but our best efforts seem bent on destroying the planet we live on, not saving it.

Originally posted by Majestic RNA
Thanks for the flag whoever that was, I just need two more flags to become a solid contributor…. Heh

Sad if you come on ATS for this purpose.

Hmmm. Interesting camera thats alot of detail in one shot.

Yeah i wasn't very clear before. not saying i expect a huge natural disaster/depopulation event to occur, just thought it was interesting as far as the timing.

Which i think was the point of the other thread.

reply to post by des9996


It's cool, I see where ya coming from

Originally posted by jonnyc55

Originally posted by Majestic RNA
Thanks for the flag whoever that was, I just need two more flags to become a solid contributor…. Heh

Sad if you come on ATS for this purpose.

Hmmm. Interesting camera thats alot of detail in one shot.

Jonny, you did notice the big grin and the word 'heh' yeah?? that usualy means it's in jest or light hearted, same with the smile/lol after I thanked people for being a proud owner of a Solid content contributor badge, I can assure you I don't frequent ATS for flags and stars ect. check all my previous posts if you don't beleive me, I've never mentioned it once, lighten up a bit Jonny, no need for it, it was just a laugh...

On topic:

Yeah it is a Interesting camera they have instaled on the PS1, their claiming it's "able to observe the entire available sky several times each month" and this is just a prototype for a much larger scope!

reply to post by pjslug


Hi pjslug, yeah I'm with you, it does make you wonder what we would do if we found a planet/asteroid on it's way to hit the Earth, send Bruce Willis in with a nuke? and yeah we are doing a good job of messing up the Earth, I hope as time goes on Humans will see the error of their ways and treat the Earth with respect.. we can only hope!

I hope more projects like these are created, we really need to monitor what's going on in space that could cause our destruction, regardless of cost.

reply to post by hippomchippo


Hi hippomchippo, agreed, how can you put a price on the future of the Earth and all the life on it, we've been lucky so far in the history of humans living on the planet but all it would take is one big mother of asteroid and we're gone..

Guess this belongs here then?

You have no idea how significant this may turn out to be when suddenly pow "announcement" ATS will be buzzing. Youve seen all the oil spill threads? Just wait for this.
S&F
Could all threads regarding anything along these lines please stick to this thread as i would safely say its possibly the first.
(Thanks for the thread undefined
Could there be an announcement regarding a star falling to earth burning like a torch scenario or something along the lines of the prophecies from say? The Mayans or the Hopi?

reply to post by Majestic RNA

Not every asteroid is a planet killer.

In fact there are very many more small objects than large objects. When these objects are found their impact location and time can be calculated. As with a tsunami, not much can be done about the property destruction which will occur but thousands, possibly millions, of lives could be saved by evacuating the area.

Originally posted by Majestic RNA
"The facility boasts one of the biggest digital cameras of its type: a 1,400 megapixel (1.4 gigapixel) device that can photograph an area of the sky as large as 36 full Moons in a single exposure"

Wow, 1400 megapixels is a lot of pixels! I'm impressed!

As pjslug said "if they find a killer asteroid what the heck do they actually plan to do about it?" Sure they have lots of ideas but no proven technology.

I think the one that seems to have the best chance of success is to sens a small spacecraft to travel alongside the object, and then use the gravity of the spacecraft to change its course. That gravity is so tiny that it could take at least a decade to change the trajectory a sufficient amount, but if we have that much time I see no reason it won't work. Now if we find one that's about to hit in 6 months, I think we're screwed.

Originally posted by Majestic RNA

Originally posted by jonnyc55

Originally posted by Majestic RNA
Thanks for the flag whoever that was, I just need two more flags to become a solid contributor…. Heh

Sad if you come on ATS for this purpose.

Hmmm. Interesting camera thats alot of detail in one shot.

Jonny, you did notice the big grin and the word 'heh' yeah?? that usualy means it's in jest or light hearted, same with the smile/lol after I thanked people for being a proud owner of a Solid content contributor badge, I can assure you I don't frequent ATS for flags and stars ect. check all my previous posts if you don't beleive me, I've never mentioned it once, lighten up a bit Jonny, no need for it, it was just a laugh...

On topic:

Yeah it is a Interesting camera they have instaled on the PS1, their claiming it's "able to observe the entire available sky several times each month" and this is just a prototype for a much larger scope!

Well I star and flag'd you! I am thrilled to read a thread about this!
I am in the 'more eyes the better' camp. How many "oh noess! something hurtling towards us" stories have been popping up lately? And to bring Bruce Willis back into this.. I always think of his quote from Armageddon "Your friggin Nasa!" always comes to mind.

And the irony of Johnny's oh so happy Yogi Bear avatar didn't escape me.. he is most def not as happy as the average bear

reply to post by Phage


Yes Phage I'm well aware not all asteroids are planet killers, I used the title for this thread as it came from the article on the BBC website.

Edit to add, they have conveniently changed the heading of the article, I guess someone at the BBC didn't like the title 'Killer space rock' hunt to begin, so it's now 'Pan-Starrs telescope begins operations to hunt asteroids' I can see where your coming from if you read the latter title...



[edit on 18-6-2010 by Majestic RNA]

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Hi Arbitrageur, yes that is one impressive camera they have on the scope, the fact it can photograph large areas as big as 36 full Moons in a single exposure is quite amazing, I wish I could have one hooked up to my scope
As you say what the heck would we do if we found an asteroid on a collision course? There are some ideas floating about, an ion fuelled tug boat type craft is one and the good old nuke it another, the 'The Planetary Defence Conference' a while ago talked about the scenario, there was a good article about it back in 2007 in the Guardian. I guess having the heads up about an asteroid on it's way buys us time to try and do something about it, but then again if it's too big and too late to do anything about it, like you say we're well and truly screwed!

'The Planetary Defence Conference'