The Science of Orbit@Home
We present here the research carried out at the orbit@home project, that focuses on producing an optimized search strategy for dedicated astronomical surveys to search for near-Earth asteroids. This work is lead by Pasquale Tricarico at the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), in collaboration with Ed Beshore, Steve Larson, Andrea Boattini at the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), and Gareth Williams at the Minor Planet Center (MPC).
Asteroid 2011 MD
The little asteroid 2011 MD, about 10 meters in diameter, will fly by the earth on Jun 27. We have posted here some animations showing the geometry of this encounter. It is interesting to note that it will come closer than the GPS satellites, and also that it comes from the norther hemisphere, passes over the Earth's south pole, and then is deflected so strongly that leaves the Earth back in the northern hemisphere.
New Storage Equipment
We are pleased to announce that new storage equipment has been ordered today. We should receive, install, and test it within the next two weeks. This upgrade is critical to allow orbit@home to continue operations and to keep growing beyond the volunteers base of 25,000 that we just recently reached. A grateful acknowledgement goes also to all the people that donates to this project, as this gives us the much needed flexibility to take care of unexpected project requirements such as this one.
Orbit@Home in Production Mode with Real Data
We are pleased to announce that orbit@home is now in production mode. WUs are generated now at a rate of about 300,000 every week, each one requiring about one hour to complete on average personal computers. We plan to maintain this production rate for at least one month, and then reassess how to continue the research.