Last Update: December 31, 2022, 12:58 IST
The results of the experiment could aid efforts to protect Earth from large asteroids that could cause significant damage. (Credits: Reuters)
A group of researchers has sent radio signals into space with the aim of bouncing a 500-feet asteroid to learn about its interior.
A group of researchers has sent radio signals into space with the aim of bouncing a 500-feet asteroid to learn about its interior.
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), a powerful transmitter in remote Alaska, aimed its antennas at asteroid 2010 XC15, a space rock classified as a near-Earth potentially hazardous asteroid, to send a long-wavelength radio signal. has been done.
The results of the experiment could aid efforts to protect Earth from large asteroids that could cause significant damage.
“We will be analyzing the data over the next few weeks and hope to publish results in the coming months,” said Mark Haynes, the project’s principal investigator and a radar systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
This experiment was the first time an asteroid observation was attempted at such low frequencies.
“This shows the value of HAARP as a potential future research tool for the study of near-Earth objects,” he said.
Several programs exist to quickly detect asteroids, determine their orbit and size, and image their surface, either with optical telescopes or the Deep Space Network’s planetary radar, NASA’s large and highly sensitive stations in California, Spain, and Australia. Network of radio antennas.
Longer wavelength radio signals can reveal the interior of objects.
Using three powerful generators, HAARP began broadcasting long-wavelength chirping signals this week and will continue to send them uninterrupted until the 12-hour experiment’s scheduled end.
Data analysis is expected to take several weeks.
The experiment also served as a testbed to probe an asteroid larger than 2010 XC15.
Asteroid Apophis, discovered in 2004, will make its closest approach to Earth on April 13, 2029. It will come within about 20,000 miles of Earth, closer than many geostationary satellites orbiting the planet.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)