Panoramic telescope could provide early warning
by Bobby Command
West Hawaii Today
bcommand@westhawaiitoday.com
Saturday, January 6, 2007 9:02 AM HST
A system designed to survey the skies for potentially threatening objects near Earth is being proposed for the summit of Mauna Kea.
The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System involves a wide-field imaging facility being developed at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy.
It will be the subject of 6 p.m. scoping meetings on Jan. 23 at Kealakehe Intermediate School, Jan. 24 at the Waimea Civic Center and Jan. 25 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Campus Center.
By combining relatively small mirrors with very large digital cameras, the Institute for Astronomy would develop and deploy an economical observing system able to observe the entire available sky several times each month.
The immediate goal of the system, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, would search for and characterize Earth-approaching objects, both asteroids and comets, that might pose a danger to our planet.
A huge volume of images produced by this system would also provide valuable data for many other kinds of scientific programs, including large-scale mapping of the universe.
According to the Institute for Astronomy, the threat posed by these objects is small, but the projected outcome of such a collision could range from local devastation to an extinction-level event.
Many scientists agree that an asteroid about 10 miles in diameter struck the Yucatan area about 65 million years ago, helping cause the extinction of dinosaurs. Another collision about 50,000 years ago caused the Barringer Meteor Crater near Flagstaff, Ariz., and released energy estimated to be equivalent to that of a large thermonuclear device.
But more recently, the 1908 collision of a similar-sized asteroid in the Tunguska region of Siberia in Russia led to an airburst which flattened thousands of square miles of remote forest but did not kill any humans.
An upcoming near miss will be the Apophis asteroid, which will pass Earth on April 13, 2029. Scientists say there is a small chance Apophis could collide with Earth in 2035, 2036 or 2037.
Should a dangerous object be discovered, the preparation notice says that scientists hope technology can be developed to nudge the object off its course. But this technology would likely take decades to develop.
But even a few months of warning could allow threatened areas to be evacuated and emergency supplies readied to eliminate or minimize impact to human life.
The telescope project must comply with requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, as well as state and county permitting. It also will face the scrutiny of the Native Hawaiian community, which has been active in many issues concerning astronomy on Mauna Kea.
An environmental impact statement preparation notice has been issued for the project, and comments on the document will be accepted through Feb. 7.
For more information on the document or the project, call Jeffrey Overton, Group 70 International, at (808) 523-5866.
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West Hawaii Today : Local
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