Astronomers from the Keck Telescope in Hawaii will be trying to observe Asteroid 2005 YU55 as it flies away from Earth. A live webcast from Keck starts about the same time this article is being published, starting no later than 9 pm U.S. PST on Nov. 8, or Midnight EST/ 0500 UT on Wednesday, Nov. 9. Indications are the webcast might start a little late because of fog on Mauna Kea.
Their hope is to get infrared images and perhaps a three-dimensional view of the asteroid with one of the world’s largest optical/infrared telescopes. The observing run is being webcast live on UStream from the Keck II Remote Operations room in Kamuela, Hawaii. They also are hoping to be able to look for moons around the asteroid. About 20% of asteroids have “moons” orbiting them.
At the helm of the 10-meter Keck II telescope and using Keck’s pioneering adaptive optics to view YU55 will be asteroid investigators William Merline and Peter Tamblyn of Southwest Research Institute, in Boulder, Colorado, and Chris Neyman of Keck Observatory.
As a relatively new fan of amateur astronomy, these kinds of podcasts are very gratifying and educational. This should be a regular modus operandii for those of you who are experts at this type of science, if nothing else to avoid all the scaremongeing and looseheaded speculation that occurs around these events. keep up the good work, guys.
You know I get it – a lot of quacks out there predict the end of the world every time a NEA or anything like one is discovered, but I tuned in to watch a video about science and a neat object in the sky, not some video of two guys talking about “conspiracy theorists.” I turned off the video at that point. Sure maybe it was just a few minutes… but it was a turn off.
Very enjoyable, more of this kind of thing would go a long long way to peak the interest in astronomy especially in kids, great stuff keep it up!
Funding is also generated through interest, the more interest the more potential for funding.
Thanks for putting this up Nancy!