How NYUAD Hunted an Asteroid
How can humanity defend themselves from a potential asteroid strike on Earth? On September 26, NASA intentionally collided their DART — Double Asteroid Redirection Testspace — probe into the non-threatening asteroid Didymos. In this first-ever asteroid-deflection space mission, the asteroid and probe paths were calculated with impressive accuracy, and the probe successfully made impact with the center of the asteroid and deflected it out of its original orbit.
In preparation for this test, a mixed group of researchers from NYUAD and the U.S. went to a Dubai desert on September 21 to observe the asteroid pass over a bright star visible from the emirate. Another team of researchers performed the same observation from Oman. Their goal was to get better estimates on the asteroid’s orbit, by determining the time of the occultation with a precision better than 0.1 seconds, and help NASA determine the precise location of the asteroid to assist with the spacecraft’s guidance. However, there was a low chance of successfully observing the occultation from the UAE and Oman.
A researcher from UC Santa Cruz, Paul Dalba, came to the UAE bringing along the equipment required to observe this event. Uncertain about their ability to capture the event, the UAE team used six separate sets of eVscope telescopes and video cameras simultaneously. A simultaneous effort was made by the researchers on the Oman side, who used additional five eVscope telescopes. With these digital, compact, and smart devices, the team divided themselves into different groups, covering possible/estimated asteroid paths, and anticipated the passing of Didymos 43 minutes past midnight.
All UAE located telescopes performed to standard, and all UAE telescopes had clear non-detections. Despite the clear non-detection of all telescopes, the high quality of the data speaks to the flawless execution of the difficult observation by the UAE research team, helps exclude the UAE locations as the asteroid paths, and tells us with confidence where the asteroid was not located
Five days after this desert astronomical adventure, astronomers worldwide were left stunned as Didymos and its debris brightened up in the sky after its impact with DART.