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Year: 2024

NASA Extends UArizona-Led Asteroid Search Mission

For two more years, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE, will continue its hunt for asteroids and comets – including objects that could pose a hazard to Earth.

The NEOWISE infrared-wavelength astronomical space telescope has made well over a million infrared observations of more than 39,000 asteroids and comets throughout the solar system.NASA/JPL

NASA has approved- a two-year extension of NEOWISE, a mission dedicated to discovering and measuring the sizes of asteroids and comets that could pose an impact hazard to Earth. The principal investigator for NEOWISE is Amy Mainzer, a professor in the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

As principal investigator of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission, Mainzer oversees the first dedicated space-based asteroid-hunting project in history. The mission has resulted in the detection and characterization of an unprecedented number of asteroids and comets, including objects that could potentially pose a hazard to Earth in the future.

“Few universities, if any, are as active in asteroid science as we are, and we were very fortunate when Dr. Mainzer joined us two years ago,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. “Dr. Mainzer is one of the world’s top asteroid researchers, and her leadership in this field is critically important to tackling the grand challenge of planetary security. I look forward to seeing how she and her team further advance this work.”

NEOWISE has been conducting a survey of asteroids and comets that come close to the Earth since the mission’s reactivation in December 2013. Near-Earth objects, or NEOs, are asteroids and comets with orbits that come close to Earth’s orbit.

Extended to run through 2023, NEOWISE will keep watch for Earth-approaching objects and use its heat-sensitive detectors to measure the objects’ sizes and the reflectivity of their surfaces.

The telescope senses the heat that objects re-emit from being warmed by sunlight instead of the visible light that is reflected off their surfaces, so the mission is particularly good at spotting very dark asteroids and comets, Mainzer explained.

“NEOWISE has shown that roughly a third of near-Earth asteroids are as dark as printer toner,” she said. “Dark asteroids are more easily missed by telescopes that use visible light because they appear very dim. But to NEOWISE, they stand out brightly in the infrared wavelengths.”

NEOWISE was not originally designed to search for asteroids and comets. The spacecraft was launched in December 2009 as the WISE mission and conducted an infrared survey of the whole sky to search for the universe’s brightest galaxies and make a map of the sky to find interesting targets for observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. However, it turned out to be useful for characterizing asteroids and comets – so much so that after WISE was put into hibernation in February 2011, the NASA NEO Observations program asked it to be reactivated.  

The mission was re-dubbed NEOWISE when it turned its eyes back to the sky in 2013. It is complementary to Earth-based searches for NEOs, Mainzer said.

“NEOWISE has taught us a lot about how to find, track and characterize Earth-approaching asteroids and comets using a space-based infrared telescope,” Mainzer said. “The mission serves as an important precursor for carrying out a more comprehensive search for these objects using the new telescope we’re building – the NEO Surveyor.”

NEO Surveyor is a successor mission led by Mainzer that was approved by NASA for further development this month. Scheduled to launch in 2026, it will provide a comprehensive space-based capability to survey for near-Earth objects and comets and will greatly expand on what scientists have learned, and continue to learn, from NEOWISE. Development of NEO Surveyor is a key initiative of the University of Arizona’s strategic plan.

Thousands of Asteroids Observed

NEOWISE has delivered physical data on an enormous number of asteroids and comets, and efforts are underway to mine even more findings out of the dataset. It has also discovered more than 30,000 previously unknown asteroids, including 338 near-Earth asteroids and 34 comets. Since its restart in 2013, the mission has made 1,130,000 confirmed infrared observations of approximately 39,100 objects throughout the solar system. So far, NEOWISE data have been used to determine the numbers, sizes and orbital elements of NEOs, as well as reveal the properties of other asteroids and comets farther out in the solar system. In total, the telescope has observed about 1,850 of the largest near-Earth asteroids.

NEOWISE data have been extensively used by the scientific community, resulting in more than 1,600 peer-reviewed scientific publications. All of the data have been delivered on schedule through the publicly accessible NASA Infrared Science Archive hosted by IPAC at Caltech. 

Among NEOWISE’s many accomplishments was the discovery in 2020 of the comet NEOWISE, named after the mission.

As the telescope has continued to perform well despite being long past its intended seven-month lifetime, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office has extended the reactivated mission, with this most recent extension adding two years to the intended duration of spacecraft operations, to June 2023. 

“NEOWISE provides a unique capability in our global mission of planetary defense by allowing us to measure the infrared emission and rapidly estimate the size of hazardous asteroids,” said Michael Kelley, NEOWISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

Comet NEOWISE—named after the mission that discovered it —captured on July 6, 2020 above the northeast horizon just before sunrise in Tucson.Vishnu Reddy

“As asteroids are warmed by the sun, they absorb that heat and release it as infrared light. Using these measurements, combined with reflected light measurements from ground-based telescopes, we can figure out both how big the asteroid is and how reflective it is, which gives us some information about its composition,” said NEOWISE Deputy Principal Investigator Joseph Masiero, a scientist at IPAC at the California Institute of Technology. “To date, NEOWISE has provided size and reflectivity characterization for over 1,800 near-Earth objects, helping us better understand our nearest neighbors in the solar system.”  

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages and operates the NEOWISE spacecraft for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office in the Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science data processing takes place at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Resources

TheFutureofPlanetaryDefenseDownload

Science Publications

NEOCam leverages the experience of the NEOWISE team. See a list of NEOWISE publications.

Mainzer, A., et al. “Survey Simulations of a New Near-Earth Asteroid Detection System” 2015, AJ, accepted.

Girard, J., et al. “Cosmic ray response of megapixel LWIR arrays from TIS” 2014, Proc. SPIE 9154.

McMurtry, C., et al., “Development of sensitive long-wave infrared detector arrays for passively cooled space missions” 2013, Opt. Eng. 52(9).

Bottke, W. F., Vokrouhlický, D., Ballouz, R.-L., Barnouin, O. S., Connolly, H. C., Jr., Elder, C., Marchi, S., McCoy, T. J., Michel, P., Nolan, M. C., Rizk, B., Scheeres, D. J., Schwartz, S. R., Walsh, K. J., Lauretta, D. S. 2020. Interpreting the Cratering Histories of Bennu, Ryugu, and Other Spacecraft-Explored Asteroids (PDF). Astron. J. 160, 14.

Bottke, W. F., A. Moorhead, H. C. Connolly Jr, C. W. Hergenrother, J. L. Molaro, P. Michel, M. C. Nolan, S. R. Schwartz, D. Vokrouhlický, K. J. Walsh, and D. S. Lauretta. 2020. Meteoroid Impacts as a Source of Bennu’s Particle Ejection Events (PDF), JGR-Planets 125, 2019JE006282

Nesvorný, D., Vokrouhlický, D., Bottke, W. F., Levison, H. F., Grundy, W. M. 2020. Very Slow Rotators from Tidally Synchronized Binaries (PDF). Astrophys. J. 893, L16.

Mazrouei, S., R. R. Ghent, W. F. Bottke, A. H. Parker, T. M. Gernon. 2019. Earth and Moon impact flux increased at the end of the Paleozoic (PDF). Science 363, 253-257.
Supplementary Material for Earth and Moon impact flux increased at the end of the Paleozoic (PDF)

Granvik, M., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Bolin, B., Bottke, W. F., Beshore, E., Vokrouhlicky, D., Nesvorny, D., Michel, P. 2018. Debiased orbit and absolute-magnitude distributions for near-Earth objects (PDF). Icarus 312, 181-207.

Jedicke, R., Bolin, B. T., Bottke, W. F., Chyba, M., Fedorets, G., Granvik, M., Jones, L., Urrutxua, H. 2018. Earth’s Minimoons: Opportunities for Science and Technology (PDF). Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 5, 13.

Stokes, G. H., B. W. Barbee, W. F. Bottke, M. W. Buie, S. R. Chesley, P. W. Chodas, J. B. Evans, R. E Gold, T. Grav, A. W. Harris, R. Jedicke, A. K. Mainzer, D. L. Mathias, T. B. Spahr, D. K. Yeomans. 2017. Update to determine the feasibility of enhancing the search and characterization of NEOs (PDF). Report of the Near-Earth Object Science Definition Team. Prepared at the request of NASA, Science Mission Directorate, Planetary Science Division.

Granvik, M., Morbidelli, A., Vokrouhlicky, D., Bottke, W. F., Nesvorny, D., Jedicke, R. 2017. Escape of asteroids from the main belt (PDF). Astronomy and Astrophysics 598, A52.

Granvik, M., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Bolin, B., Bottke, W. F., Beshore, E., Vokrouhlicky, D., Delbo, M., Michel, P. 2016. Super-catastrophic disruption of asteroids at small perihelion distances (PDF). Nature 530, 303-306.
Supplementary Material for Super-catastrophic disruption of asteroids at small perihelion distances (PDF)

Mazanek, D. and 20 colleagues. 2016. Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) Formulation Assessment and Support Team (FAST) Final Report (PDF). NASA/TM–2016-219011.

A Family-based Method of Quantifying NEOWISE Diameter Errors

Thermophysical Modeling of NEOWISE Observations of DESTINY+ Targets Phaethon and 2005 UD

Uncertainties on Asteroid Albedos Determined by Thermal Modeling

Dorn, M.;McMurtry, C.; Pipher, J.; Forrest, W.; Cabrero, M.; Wong, A.; Mainzer, A.;   Lee, D.; Pan, J.  2018, Proceedings of the SPIE 10709, id. 1070907, “A monolithic 2k × 2k LWIR HgCdTe detector array for passively cooled space missions (PDF)”

Mario S. Cabrera, Craig W. McMurtry, Meghan L. Dorn, William J. Forrest, Judith L. Pipher, Donald Lee, “Development of 13 μm cutoff HgCdTe detector arrays for astronomy (PDF),” JATIS  5(3), 036005 (2019), doi: 10.1117/1.JATIS.5.3.036005

Mario S. Cabrera, Craig W. McMurtry, William J. Forrest, Judith L. Pipher, Meghan L. Dorn, Donald L, JATIS 6(1), 011004 (2020) “Characterization of a 15 μm Cutoff HgCdTe Detector Array for Astronomy (PDF)”

Zengilowski, G.; Cabrera, M.; McMurtry, C., Pipher, J.; Dorn, M.; Reilly, N.; Bovie, D.; Mainzer, A.; Wong, A.; Lee, D. under review JATIS (2021), Blooming in H2RG arrays: Laboratory measurements of a second brighter-fatter type effect in HgCdTe infrared detectors (PDF)

Pipher, J.; McMurtry, C.; Cabrera, M.; Forrest, W. accepted by JAI (2021) Mid-Infrared Detector Array Technologies for SOFIA and Space Observatory Instruments (PDF)

Zengilowski, Gregory R.;  McMurtry, Craig W.;  Pipher, Judith L.;  Reilly, Nicholas S.;  Forrest, William J.;  Cabrera, Mario S.;  Dorn, Meghan L.;  Wong, Andre F.;  Mainzer, A. K.; “Signal nonlinearity measurements and corrections in MWIR and LWIR HgCdTe H2RG arrays for NEO Surveyor (PDF)”, Proc. SPIE, Vol 11454, (2020)

Characterization of Thermal Infrared Dust Emission and Refinements to the Nucleus Properties of Centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1

Binarity as the Origin of Long Secondary Periods in Red Giant Stars

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Investigation Team

Other Objects

In addition to near-Earth objects, NEO Surveyor will likely detect more than a million asteroids in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter and about a thousand new comets.  By studying the physical and orbital properties of Main Belt asteroids and comets, we can better understand where the NEOs come from.

Unlike asteroids in the Main Belt, which have generally remained in place for billions of years, we know that NEOs are a transitory population. NEO orbits aren’t usually stable for longer than a few million years. After a few million years, one of three things will happen to most NEOs: either they will be pulled into the Sun, get ejected from the inner solar system, or they will crash into a planet.

The fact that we see so many NEOs today despite their transitory nature means that they must continually be resupplied from sources in the Main Belt or comet populations. NEO Surveyor will give us more detailed insight into how the NEOs are formed, and what will eventually happen to them.

NEO Surveyor will also yield valuable information about the numbers, sizes, and activity levels of comets, allowing us to better understand the hazard they may pose to Earth as well as their origins. NEO Surveyor’s science team includes experts on comet population studies and composition.

While NEOWISE discovered 21 new comets, NEO Surveyor would be expected to discover many times more.

Science Overview

Throughout our planet’s 4.6 billion year history, asteroids and comets have been agents of change for our planet: they may have delivered the ingredients needed for life, and they have caused mass extinctions. 

Today, asteroids spend most of their time harmlessly orbiting in the main belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. These remnants from our solar system’s formation can still make their way into the inner part of our solar system, however, sometimes impacting the Earth. 

We now know that most of the very largest asteroids and comets that get close to Earth have been discovered, but many of the more numerous smaller ones (still capable of causing significant regional damage) remain to be found. 

The Near-Earth Object Surveyor is designed to discover and characterize a large fraction of the asteroids and comets throughout our solar system, including those that get close to Earth. NEO Surveyor will not only find asteroids and comets, but it will teach us about their physical properties, origins, and evolution. 

Our results suggest that the subset of NEOs that are most likely to cause impacts, the so-called potentially hazardous objects, are about twice as likely to occupy orbits in nearly the same plane as the Earth.  This may mean that they are more likely to impact the Earth. With NEO Surveyor, we can better quantify the risks of asteroid impacts simply by going out and discovering them.

Artist concept of comets impacting Eta Corvi.

Late Heavy Bombardment This illustration depicts a period early in the history of the solar system in which Earth and the inner planets were pummeled by cometary debris filling the young solar system. Scientists think this “Late Heavy Bombardment” was triggered in our solar system by the migration of our outer planets, which jostled icy comets about, sending some of them flying inward. The incoming comets scarred our moon and pummeled our inner planets. They may have even brought materials to Earth that helped kick start life. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt)

Science Data Processing

The NEO Surveyor science data processing pipeline builds our team’s experience with discovering asteroids using a space-based infrared telescope, WISE. Our team developed software that discovered new asteroids and comets in near real-time; the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE project is known as NEOWISE. 

The NEOWISE software developed by our team allowed us to detect more than 158,000 asteroids and comets (including about 34,000 new discoveries) with heat-sensitive infrared images. These included 577 NEOs (135 of which were new discoveries credited to NEOWISE).

We will adapt the existing NEOWISE science data processing to work with NEO Surveyor’s images, allowing us to distinguish moving asteroids and comets from background stars and galaxies.  NEO Surveyor’s survey cadence is optimized to allow the mission to not only discover new asteroids, but to observe them enough times to ensure that they can be found again.

Mission Orbit and Timeline

The NEO Surveyor planetary defense mission is made up of 5 parts:

  1. Launch – NEO Surveyor will launch around September 2027.
  2. In-Orbit Checkout – In the first 30 days, NEO Surveyor will perform in-orbit checkouts while it travels to its destination, a region of space fairly close to the Earth (in astronomical terms) called the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point, similar to where the SOHO and Genesis missions operated.  Here it will take on a large-amplitude “halo” orbit.  This vantage point at L1, which is about four times further away than the Moon and interior to the Earth along the Earth-Sun line, allows NEO Surveyor to view a large fraction of the Earth’s orbit at any given time, and the sunshade (based on the 1983 IRAS mission) allows it to look close to the Sun.  This region of space is ideal for NEO Surveyor, allowing the observatory to maintain a nearly constant distance from Earth (about 1 million kilometers) – far enough away to provide a stable, cold environment, yet close enough to support the high-speed radio communications needed to send NEO Surveyor’s large-format images back to Earth.  NEO Surveyor’s orbit is carefully designed to maximize scientific discovery while minimizing cost, complexity, and risk. 
  3. Survey Verification — The science phase starts 30 days after launch.  By this time, NEO Surveyor has traveled most of the distance to L1.  All observatory operations follow the science phase protocols.  A 6-month survey verification period allows exploratory data to be collected and calibrations to be performed by the mission’s ground segment in order to optimize object detection.  At the same time, NEO Surveyor is finding, tracking and characterizing near-Earth objects.
  4. Nominal Survey – NEO Surveyor performs a continuous, repetitive survey for at least 56 more months (12 years total being the goal), with scheduled breaks for telecommunication and momentum management tasks.  In the first 5 years of survey operations, NEO Surveyor will find more than 2/3 of near-Earth objects >=140 m diameter in size.
  5. Decommissioning – At mission end (62 months to 12 years after launch), NEO Surveyor will retire and transition to a heliocentric orbit.

NEO Surveyor’s Viewing Geometry – NEO Surveyor’s location inside the Earth’s orbit and unique ability to survey for asteroids as close as 45 degrees to the sun means that it can cover a much larger fraction of the region of space where hazardous asteroids are located. Over the course of 4 years, approximately two-thirds of all potentially hazardous asteroids will pass within this viewing window and be observed, detected, and reported by NEO Surveyor. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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