testimony
prepared by David Morrison, John D.G. Rather and Wesley T. Huntress
for the hearing before the Committee on Science, Space and Technology
of the U.S. Congress (March 24, 1993)
EARN (European
Asteroid Research Node) is an informal association of European research
groups active in asteroid research. Its home page provides,
among other things:
the Minor
Planet Circulars, containing astrometric observations, orbits,
ephemerides, new numberings and namings of minor planets and comets
the Minor
Planet Electronic Circulars, supplying timely information on
unusual minor planets (including NEOs) and new discoveries, as well as
monthly lists of observable objects (now also available
on-line)
periodic catalogues of orbits and observations of asteroids
and comets
The Center supplies also on-line services:
the Computer
Service: telnet access to IAUCs and MPECs, identification
of known comets and asteroids in a given position of the sky, access to updated
orbital elements, generetion of ephemerides, etc.;
the Extended
Computer Service: retrieval of Minor Planet Circulars,
complete lists of astrometric observations and orbital elements of
asteroids and comets;
the Web
Computer Service: WWW access to IAUCs (restricted to
subscribers) and MPECs (public).
and many other documents not listed here (for a complete list,
see the comprehensive alphabetic
index)
The
Space
Shield Foundation (a totally private, non-commercial
Foundation organized in Russia on initiative of scientists of Russian
Federal Nuclear Allrussian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics).
The Planetary Society
(a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 1980 to encourage
the exploration of our solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life)
distributes interesting publications and material about the Solar System
(see the Planetary Store)
and supplies several on-line services, among which:
Online Press Room
(a collection of the latest information about Society events, programs,
personalities, and other news about the exploration of the universe)
Near-Earth Object
Grant Program (encouraging the discovery and exploration of comets and
asteroids by supporting observation projects and related research around
the world)
EUNEASO
(European NEO Search, Follow-up and Physical Observation Programme)
is a cooperation between European institutes working in the field of
asteroid research to organize a large-scale NEO search programme. Current
activities include camera and software development, site selection,
network establishment, follow-up astrometry and physical observations.
NEAT
(Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking) is an automated search of the sky for
near-Earth asteroids and comets, based on a 1-m GEODSS telescope.
The home page provides:
lists of newly discovered objects, with astrometric coordinates,
orbital elements and images;
newspaper articles announcing the beginning of the system
operations.
OCA-DLR Asteroid
Survey (O.D.A.S) is a dedicated programme to search for asteroids
and comets, with special emphasis on NEO's. It is operated at the
90cm
Schmidt-telescope of the OCA at Calern, north of Nice, in southern France.
Further information:
The Spacewatch
Project is a semi-automated system for the discovery of
Near-Earth asteroids, presently operating a 0.91-meter Newtonian reflector.
Its home page supplies:
TASS
(The Amateur Sky Survey) has the objective of constructing low-cost
drift-scan cameras (equipped with CCDs) which could be operated by
amateurs around the world to monitor bright objects (including NEOs)
across a large section of the sky. Its home page is very rich and
includes (among many other documents):
UESAC
(the Uppsala-ESO Survey of Asteroids and Comets) is a search for previously
undetected comets in the vicinity of Jupiter; it is described in two papers
(paper
1
and paper
2, from the home page of
Gonzalo
Tancredi)
an introduction
on impact cratering on Earth (morphology, identification, hazard)
an extensive
list
of impact structures, with location, age, diameter and images (photographies,
gravity maps)
The James
River Survey of a possible meteor crater impact by J. Helen Isaac,
Robert R. Stewart and Henry C. Bland (3D image and movie of a simulated
flight around the structure)