Schools use FauSkesTelescope to investigate neai^Earth asteroid

摘要

The 2,0-metre aperture Faulkes telescopes, comprising the FT North on Maui, Hawaii and the FT South at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, are both used by schools and colleges to facilitate science learning. Classes are typically allocated 30-minute observing sessions, so the challenge is to find observing projects that yield results in a short space of time. One proposal from the BAA ARPS has been to initiate an ongoing examination of newly-discovered asteroids that are less than about 150m across (absolute magnitude H>22) with a view to establishing their rotation rates. Deteimining the distribution of spin rates is valuable for understanding the evolution of the asteroids and the role they have played in the formation of the solar system and its present dynamics. Small objects tend to be fragments produced by the collision of larger asteroids, and as such are likely to rotate on their axis more quickly than larger bodies. In contrast, asteroids located in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter typically exhibit longer rotation periods of 4-12 hours.