Spacewatch

The Spacewatch project is an astronomical survey that specializes in the study of minor planets, including various types of asteroids and comets at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States.

It is led by astronomer Robert S. McMillan at the University of Arizona and was founded in 1980 by Tom Gehrels and McMillan. Spacewatch uses a 1.8 meter and a 0.9 meter dedicated telescope. In addition, it uses the Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope and the Steward Observatory's Bok Telescope for follow-up observations of near-Earth objects.^[2][3]

The 36 inch (0.9 meter) telescope at Kitt Peak observatory has been in use by Spacewatch since 1984, and since 2000 the 72 inch Spacewatch telescope.^[4] The 36 inch telescope continued in use and was further upgraded, in particular the telescopes use electronic detectors.^[4]

Spacewatch’s 1.8-meter telescope is the largest in the world that is used exclusively for asteroids and comets.^[5]

Contents

• 1 History
• 2 Notable discoveries
• 3 See also
• 4 References

History

The 1.8 meter Spacewatch telescope and its building on Kitt Peak were dedicated on June 7, 1997 for the purpose of finding previously unknown asteroids and comets.^[6] Since January 1 2003, Spacewatch has made ~2400 separate-night detections of Near-Earth Objects.^[7]

Notable discoveries

• Callirrhoe^[8]
• 5145 Pholus^[9]
• 9965 GNU^[10][11]
• 9885 Linux^[12]
• 9882 Stallman^[13]
• 9793 Torvalds^[14]
• 20000 Varuna^[15]
• 60558 Echeclus^[16]
• 1998 KY26^[17]
• (35396) 1997 XF11^[18]
• (48639) 1995 TL8^[19]
• 1994 CC^[20]
• C/1992 J1^[21]
• 125P/Spacewatch^[22]
• 174567 Varda^[23]
• 2013 BS45^[24]
• The project rediscovered 719 Albert, a long-lost asteroid.

See also

• Minor Planet Center (MPC)
• Planetary Data System (PDS)
• Spaceguard
• List of near-Earth object observation projects

References