Israeli scientists were invited to present their work at a NASA conference on the danger of impacts from space

Avi Blizovsky

Israeli scientists studying near-Earth asteroids as part of the National Center for Knowledge on Small Bodies were invited to present their work at a workshop organized by NASA in which measures to eradicate the danger from asteroids that could harm the Earth will be discussed. The workshop takes place between June 26 and 29 in the state of Colorado in the USA.

Tel Aviv University operates a "national knowledge center" that studies asteroids and comets approaching the Earth and potentially hitting it. The researchers at the Knowledge Center use two telescopes at the Weiss Observatory in Mitzpe Ramon to follow these bodies and study the light coming from them. As part of David Polischuk's doctoral thesis, asteroid bodies of the "Aten" type were studied that cross the Earth's orbit, but most of the time are between the Sun and the Earth, so it is difficult to observe them. Of the eight bodies studied, it turns out that five are probably double bodies: a main asteroid that is a few kilometers in size and a moon of the asteroid orbiting it. The asteroid moons are smaller than the asteroids themselves and are probably only a few hundred meters in size. They are only a few kilometers away from the asteroids they orbit.

The discovery is of crucial importance when they try to crush a double asteroid with a nuclear explosion, or if they try to divert it from its orbit. In both cases, the presence of the second body (the moon) disrupts the plans to eradicate the danger.

Due to the Israeli discovery, which greatly increases the frequency of double systems among asteroids of the Aten type, the researchers were invited to present their work at a workshop organized by NASA on the topic "NEO Detection and Threat Mitigation" where the intention is to use the results of the workshop to connect two h to the US Congress towards the end of 2006. Attendance at the workshop is open only to US citizens, therefore the Israeli contribution was submitted as a white paper (paper for discussion).

The activity of the National Knowledge Center on Small Bodies is supported by the Israel Space Agency and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

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