KBO encounters |
KBO encounters |
Aug 2 2008, 12:53 PM
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#1
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 6 Joined: 1-August 08 Member No.: 4280 |
Hi,
I’m regular follower of NH and I’m also interested in the 2nd leg of the mission, i.e the 2016+ KBOs encounters. Does anyone know when operations about this leg (starting with searching objects of interest with HST or some other earth-based means, I suppose) are expected to begin ? |
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Feb 2 2019, 11:00 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
If you are looking for kilometre sized objects you would need a telescope in every square kilometre or so over a wide area. You would then get good values for the object's likely size and shape, along with a snapshot of its position and angular velocity. That's not enough to determine the orbit, though. For that you need observations over a much longer period than the time it takes for an occultation to sweep Earth's surface.
As to the availability of 'back lighting' just look at the apparent surface brightness of the Milky Way and compare it to the surface of the Sun. That's how much our sky is undersampled with light sources for occultation. A huge marority of dark objects of whatever size will simply slip through unnoticed, like neutrinos through a planet. |
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