We all know that asteroids are out there, that some of them come dangerously close to Earth, and that they’ve struck Earth before with catastrophic consequences. The recent discovery of asteroid 2024 YR4 reminds us of the persistent threat that asteroids present. There’s an organized effort to find dangerous space rocks and determine how far away they are and where their orbits will take them.
A team of scientists has developed a method that will help us more quickly determine an asteroid’s distance, a critical part of determining its orbit.
Continue reading “Dramatically Decreasing the Time it Takes to Measure Asteroid Distances”