The Kiso Observatory of the University of Tokyo has succeeded in discovering an asteroid approaching the Earth using the new device Tomoegozen.

 At the Kiso Observatory operated by the Center for Astronomy Education and Research, Graduate School of Science, the University of Tokyo, the main telescope is the 105 cm Schmidt telescope, which features the widest field of view in Japan.

 Currently, the development of the ultra-wide-field high-speed camera "Tomoegozen", which covers the entire field of view of this 105 cm Schmidt telescope with 84 CMOS image sensors, is scheduled to be completed in May 2019.If Tomoegozen is mounted on the 5cm Schmidt telescope, it will be able to achieve the world's highest sensitivity in wide-field video observation.

 From mid-March 63, the research group of the Tomoegozen project has acquired a wide range of video data in the sky using Tomoegozen, which currently has 2019 CMOS sensors in operation.Tomoegozen can search for celestial bodies moving at high speed in the sky using a video analysis system based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology for a large amount of observation video data acquired one after another.

 As a result, we succeeded in detecting uncatalogized objects moving at high speed in the sky six times at different times on the night of March 2019, 3.As a result of tracking observations by observatories in Japan and overseas, this celestial body, which is highly likely to be an asteroid approaching the Earth, was able to determine its orbit. A provisional designation was given.

 The Earth-approaching asteroid 2019 FA, whose provisional designation was obtained for the first time by the Tomoegozen project, is estimated to be about 8 meters in diameter and is estimated to have passed about half the distance from the earth to the moon.Currently, the number of discoveries of 10-meter-sized asteroids approaching the Earth is only about 10 per year in the world, but if the number of 10-meter-sized discoveries increases dramatically by future wide-area video exploration by Tomoegozen, the number of asteroids discovered will increase. Great contributions can be expected to advance research and early detection of asteroids that may collide with the Earth.

Icon image courtesy of: Kiso Observatory, University of Tokyo, Earth Approaching Asteroid 2019 FA and Earth Position

reference:[Kiso Observatory, Kiso Observatory, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo] About the discovery of the Earth-approaching asteroid 2019 FA by the Kiso Observatory, the University of Tokyo

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