J/A+A/609/A105 280 one-opposition near Earth asteroids (Vaduvescu+, 2018)
280 one-opposition near Earth asteroids recovered by the EURONEAR with the
Isaac Newton Telescope.
Vaduvescu O., Hudin L., Mocnik T., Char F., Sonka A., Tudor V.,
Ordonez-Etxeberria I., Diaz Alfaro M., Ashley R., Errmann R., Short P.,
Moloceniuc A., Cornea R., Inceu V., Zavoianu D., Popescu M., Curelaru L.,
Mihalea S., Stoian A.-M., Boldea A., Toma R., Fields L., Grigore V.,
Stoev H., Lopez-Martinez F., Humphries N., Sowicka P., Ramanjooloo Y.,
Manilla-Robles A., Riddick F.C., Jimenez-Lujan F., Mendez J., Aceituno F.,
Sota A., Jones D., Hidalgo S., Murabito S., Oteo I., Bongiovanni A.,
Zamora O., Pyrzas S., Tanausu R., Font J., Bereciartua A.,
Perez-Fournon I., Martinez-Vazquez C.E., Monelli M., Cicuendez L.,
Monteagudo L., Agulli I., Bouy H., Huelamo N., Monguio M., Gaensicke B.T.,
Steeghs D., Gentile-Fusillo N.P., Hollands M.A., Toloza O., Manser C.J.,
Dhillon V., Sahman D., Fitzsimmons A., McNeill A., Thompson A., Tabor M.,
Murphy D.N.A., Davies J., Snodgrass C., Triaud A.H.M.J., Groot P.J.,
Macfarlane S., Peletier R., Sen S., Ikiz T., Hoekstra H., Herbonnet R.,
Koehlinger F., Greimel R., Afonso A., Parker Q.A., Kong A.K.H., Bassa C.,
Pleunis Z.
<Astron. Astrophys. 609, A105 (2018)>
=2018A&A...609A.105V 2018A&A...609A.105V (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Minor planets
Keywords: astrometry - minor planets, asteroids: general
Abstract:
One-opposition near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are growing in number, and
they must be recovered to prevent loss and mismatch risk, and to
improve their orbits, as they are likely to be too faint for detection
in shallow surveys at future apparitions.
We aimed to recover more than half of the one-opposition NEAs
recommended for observations by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) using
the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in soft-override mode and some
fractions of available D-nights. During about 130 hours in total
between 2013 and 2016, we targeted 368 NEAs, among which 56
potentially Hazardous asteroids (PHAs), observing 437 INT Wide Field
Camera (WFC) fields and recovering 280 NEAs (76% of all targets).
Engaging a core team of about ten students and amateurs, we used the
THELI, Astrometrica, and the Find_Orb software to identify all moving
objects using the blink and track-and-stack method for the faintest
targets and plotting the positional uncertainty ellipse from NEODyS.
Results. Most targets and recovered objects had apparent magnitudes
centered around V∼22.8mag, with some becoming as faint as V∼24mag.
One hundred and three objects (representing 28% of all targets) were
recovered by EURONEAR alone by Aug 2017. Orbital arcs were prolonged
typically from a few weeks to a few years; our oldest recoveries reach
16 years. The O-C residuals for our 1,854 NEA astrometric positions
show that most measurements cluster closely around the origin. In
addition to the recovered NEAs, 22,000 positions of about 3,500 known
minor planets and another 10,000 observations of about 1,500 unknown
objects (mostly main-belt objects) were promptly reported to the MPC
by our team. Four new NEAs were discovered serendipitously in the
analyzed fields and were promptly secured with the INT and other
telescopes, while two more NEAs were lost due to extremely fast motion
and lack of rapid follow-up time. They increase the counting to nine
NEAs discovered by the EURONEAR in 2014 and 2015.
Targeted projects to recover one-opposition NEAs are efficient in
override access, especially using at least two-meter class and
preferably larger field telescopes located in good sites, which appear
even more efficient than the existing surveys.
Description:
Table 2 lists the observing log of the EURONEAR 2013-2016
one-opposition near Earth asteroids (NEAs) recovery project. The
Tables includes 457 observed fields (437 using the INT, 12 using the
WHT and 4 using the OGS). We ordered the table based on the asteroid
designation (first column) then the observing date (start night),
listing the apparent magnitude V (according to MPC ephemerides), the
proper motion miu and the positional uncertainty of the targets (as
shown on the observing date by MPC at 3σ level), the number of
acquired images (including nearby fields), and the exposure time (in
seconds). In the last three columns we list the current status of the
targets (as classified in the paper by Aug 2017), the MPS publication
that includes our recovery, and some comments that can include the PHA
classification, other used telescopes (WHT or OGS), the
track-and-stack technique (TS, whenever used), other possible external
stations (MPC observatory code) and the date of later recovery (given
only for later recoveries when we were unable to find the targets or
for joined simultaneous recoveries).
File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table2.dat 81 457 368 NEAs targeted in 457 fields during this project
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also:
B/astorb : Orbits of Minor Planets (Bowell+ 2014)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 10 A10 --- NEA Aasteroid designation
14- 23 A10 "date" Obs.Date Observation date (start night)
25- 28 F4.1 mag Vmag Apparent V magnitude
(according to MPC ephemerides)
30- 32 F3.1 arcsec/min pm Total proper motion
34- 37 I4 arcsec ePos positional uncertainty of the target
(as shown on the observing date by MPC at
3σ level),
39- 42 A4 --- Nimg Number of acquired images
(including nearby fields)
44- 46 I3 s ExpTime Exposure time
48- 52 A5 --- Status Status of the target (on Jul 2017) (1)
55- 60 I6 --- MPS ? MPS publication that includes our recovery
62- 81 A20 --- Com Comments (2)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): Status as follows:
REC = recovery (followed by other stations)
RECO = recovery only (not followed by others)
RECJ = recovery joined (simultaneously with others)
RECR = revised recovery (in 2017 or following other later recovery)
NOTF = not found (but found by others later)
NOTFY = not found yet (by any other station)
Note (2): some comments that can include the PHA classification, other used
telescopes (WHT or OGS), the track-and-stack technique (TS, whenever used),
and other possible external stations (MPC observatory code) and the date of
later recovery (given only for later recoveries when we were unable to find
the targets or for joined simultaneous recoveries).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acknowledgements:
Ovidiu Vaduvescu, ovidiu.vaduvescu(at)gmail.com
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 20-Oct-2017