Suchergebnisse

Context. One-opposition near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are growing in number, and they must be recovered to prevent loss and mismatch risk, and to improve their orbits, as they are likely to be too faint for detection in shallow surveys at future apparitions. Aims. We aimed to recover more than half of the one-opposition NEAs recommended for observations by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) using the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in soft-override mode and some fractions of available D-nights. During about 130 h in total between 2013 and 2016, we targeted 368 NEAs, among which 56 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), observing 437 INT Wide Field Camera (WFC) fields and recovering 280 NEAs (76% of all targets). Methods. Engaging a core team of about ten students and amateurs, we used the THELI, Astrometrica, and the FindOrb software to identify all moving objects using the blink and track-And-stack method for the faintest targets and plotting the positional uncertainty ellipse from NEODyS. Results. Most targets and recovered objects had apparent magnitudes centered around V ~ 22.8 mag, with some becoming as faint as V ~ 24 mag. One hundred and three objects (representing 28% of all targets) were recovered by EURONEAR alone by Aug. 2017. Orbital arcs were prolonged typically from a few weeks to a few years; our oldest recoveries reach 16 years. The O-C residuals for our 1854 NEA astrometric positions show that most measurements cluster closely around the origin. In addition to the recovered NEAs, 22 000 positions of about 3500 known minor planets and another 10 000 observations of about 1500 unknown objects (mostly main-belt objects) were promptly reported to the MPC by our team. Four new NEAs were discovered serendipitously in the analyzed fields and were promptly secured with the INT and other telescopes, while two more NEAs were lost due to extremely fast motion and lack of rapid follow-up time. They increase the counting to nine NEAs discovered by the EURONEAR in 2014 and 2015. Conclusions. Targeted projects to recover one-opposition NEAs are efficient in override access, especially using at least two-meter class and preferably larger field telescopes located in good sites, which appear even more efficient than the existing surveys.© ESO, 2018. ; I.O. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) in the form of Advanced Grant, cosmicism. R.T. acknowledges funding for her La Palma trip to Armagh Observatory, which is core-funded by the Northern Ireland Government. The research led by BTG, CJM, and NPGF has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement No. 320964 (WDTracer). ; Peer Reviewed

© 2015 The Authors. Since 2006, the European Near Earth Asteroids Research (EURONEAR) project has been contributing to the research of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) within a European network. One of the main aims is the amelioration of the orbits of NEAs, and starting in 2014 February we focus on the recovery of one-opposition NEAs using the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in La Palma in override mode. Part of this NEA recovery project, since 2014 June EURONEAR serendipitously started to discover and secure the first NEAs from La Palma and using the INT, thanks to the teamwork including amateurs and students who promptly reduce the data, report discoveries and secure new objects recovered with the INT and few other telescopes from the EURONEAR network. Five NEAs were discovered with the INT, including 2014 LU14, 2014 NL52 (one very fast rotator), 2014 OL339 (the fourth known Earth quasi-satellite), 2014 SG143 (a quite large NEA), and 2014 VP. Another very fast moving NEA was discovered but was unfortunately lost due to lack of follow-up time. Additionally, another 14 NEA candidates were identified based on two models, all being rapidly followed-up using the INT and another 11 telescopes within the EURONEAR network. They include one object discovered by Pan-STARRS, two Mars crossers, two Hungarias, one Jupiter trojan, and other few inner main belt asteroids (MBAs). Using the INT and Sierra Nevada 1.5 m for photometry, then the Gran Telescopio de Canarias for spectroscopy, we derived the very rapid rotation of 2014 NL52, then its albedo, magnitude, size, and its spectral class. Based on the total sky coverage in dark conditions, we evaluate the actual survey discovery rate using 2-m class telescopes. One NEA is possible to be discovered randomly within minimum 2.8 deg 2 and maximum 5.5 deg 2 . These findings update our past statistics, being based on double sky coverage and taking into account the recent increase in discovery. ; KK acknowledges support from the Polish Narodowe Centrum Nauki Grant UMO-2011/01/D/ST9/00427. LVM has been also supported by Grant AYA2011-30491-C02-01, co-financed by MICINN and FEDER funds, and the Junta de Andalucia (Spain) Grant TIC-114. SG was supported by the Slovak Grant Agency for Science VEGA, grant no. 1/0225/14. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 320964 (WDTracer). ; Peer Reviewed