Data Mining for Near Earth Asteroids in the EuroNear

Project

• Used for uncovering patterns in a data set• Using large amounts of data in our search• Searching for new items in an older database• Successfully identifying objects of interest• It was used in the context of recovering and precovering asteroids

What is Data Mining?(and how does it work)

Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs)• They are asteroids

with an orbit which takes them close to the Earth (less than 1.3 AU)

• These are larger than 50m in diameter

• Over 7000 NEAs are known

• They survive for just a few million years Near Earth Asteroid Eros 433, photo

credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHOs)

• Considered potentially hazardous if its minimum orbit intersection distance is less than 0.05 AU

• Diameter is more than 150m • Usually diameter is not always accurately known• Visual magnitude is used

Asteroid (4179) Toutatis photo credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

What is EuroNear ?

• European Near Earth Asteroids Research• A project to recover, precover, follow-up and

discover NEAs and PHAs• Uses telescopes in both hemispheres, such as

INT, JKT 1m,ESO WFI (La Silla),• Datamining activities• Further information: http://euronear.imcce.fr

Actual Work

• It involved data mining in the context of EuroNear

• SkyBot was used to search for asteroids in the database, either for precovery or recovery

• ESO/MPG WFI and INT WFC images (fits files) in which the objects would appear were downloaded and used

Actual Work - schematic

Image credit:“EURONEAR: Data mining of asteroids and Near Earth Asteroids", Vaduvescu, O. et al., 2009, Astron. Nachr. 330, 7, 698

• Using DS9, images corresponding to each CCD from the telescopes camera were separated

• The field in which the object could be found was identified

Actual Work

Astrometrica was used to identify the field, the objects within and then to search for the asteroids by means of visual inspection

Actual Work

An asteroid observed against the background starry sky

Actual Work

• With Astrometrica the position and magnitude could be determined

• Some difficulties could appear:• Distorted images• Faint asteroids • Prohibitive filters• In case of long exposure times, the trail was

used to determine the angular speed

Actual Work

Trail

Head/Tail

Determining position or angular speed from one long exposure

Conclusions

• A great opportunity to witness first-hand how research works

• Great opportunity to know other astronomers, amateur and professional

• Experience and learning to use software such as Astrometrica, DS9 and others