An Asteroid Is Passing Earth Today, so Scientists Are Shooting It With Radio Waves - Gizmodo

A radical of researchers is attempting to bounce vigor signals disconnected a 500-foot-wide asteroid during its adjacent flyby of Earth connected Tuesday.

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is aiming its antennas astatine asteroid 2010 XC15, a abstraction stone that’s categorized arsenic a near-Earth perchance hazardous asteroid. The effort is simply a trial tally to to hole for a larger object, known arsenic Apophis, that volition person a adjacent brushwood with our satellite successful 2029.

“What’s caller and what we are trying to bash is probe asteroid interiors with agelong wavelength radars and vigor telescopes from the ground,” Mark Haynes, pb researcher connected the task and a radar systems technologist astatine NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory successful Southern California, said successful a statement. “Longer wavelengths tin penetrate the interior of an entity overmuch amended than the vigor wavelengths utilized for communication.”

HAARP is simply a probe installation successful Gakona, Alaska (one that’s been the subject of plentifulness of conspiracy theories). It’s made up of 180 high-frequency antennas, each lasting astatine 72 feet gangly and stretched crossed 33 acres. The installation transmits vigor beams toward the ionosphere, the ionized portion of the ambiance that’s located astir 50 to 400 miles (80 to 600 kilometers) supra Earth’s surface. HAARP sends vigor signals to the ionosphere and waits to spot however they return, successful an effort to measurement the disturbances caused by the Sun, among different things.

The installation launched a subject run successful October with 13 experiments, including 1 that progressive bouncing signals disconnected the Moon. At the time, HAARP researchers were considering sending a vigor awesome to an asteroid to analyse the interior of the rocky body.

During today’s experiment, the HAARP antennas successful Alaska volition transmit the vigor signals to the asteroid, and past scientists volition cheque if the reflected signals get astatine antenna arrays astatine the University of New Mexico Long Wavelength Array and California’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array.

HAARP volition transmit a continually chirping awesome astatine somewhat supra and beneath 9.6 megahertz; the chirp volition repetition astatine two-second intervals. At its closest attack connected December 27, the asteroid volition beryllium doubly arsenic acold arsenic the Moon is from Earth.

Tuesday’s experimentation is to hole for an upcoming brushwood with an asteroid successful 2029. That perchance hazardous asteroid, formally known arsenic 99942 Apophis, is astir 1,210 feet (370 meters) wide, and it volition travel to wrong 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of Earth connected April 13, 2029. The near-Earth entity was thought to airs a flimsy hazard to Earth successful 2068, but NASA ruled that out.

Still, HAARP wants to probe the asteroid to hole for imaginable risks successful the aboriginal from abstraction rocks. “The much clip determination is earlier a imaginable impact, the much options determination are to effort to deflect it,” Haynes said.

In September, NASA’s DART spacecraft smacked into a tiny asteroid and successfully altered its orbit. Such a strategy could beryllium 1 mode to divert a abstraction stone that threatens Earth.

Today’s trial shows the imaginable of utilizing agelong wavelength vigor signals to probe the interiors of asteroids. “If we tin get the ground-based systems up and running, past that volition springiness america a batch of chances to effort to bash interior sensing of these objects,” Haynes said.

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