Astronomers for the first time "caught" the shadow of a near-Earth asteroid from the light of a star

Researchers have observed a stellar coating around a near-Earth asteroid for the first time. This is an analogue of an eclipse, which

occurs when an object that is visually larger from the observer’s point of view passes in front of the star. The event lasted only a few moments, but is of great importance for research.

When observing the stars, you can get informationabout the shapes and positions of the objects of the solar system with an accuracy that cannot be achieved in any other way, scientists explain. But in order to get information, you need to very accurately calculate the place and time of the event and place a surveillance system there.

Observations of the passage of objects in front of the starshave already been used to study the planets of the solar system, their satellites and asteroids of the Asteroid Belt. But with near-Earth objects, things are somewhat more complicated: from the point of view of an observer on Earth, they move much faster, and therefore the passage takes only a few milliseconds.

To solve this problem, the EuropeanThe Space Agency (ESA) has implemented the ACROSS (Cooperative Asteroid Exploration with Systematic Eclipse Investigation) project. It brings together research institutes, amateur astronomers and observatories around the world who can participate in observations. As the first target, astronomers chose the asteroid Didymus, whose satellite was recently crashed by a NASA spacecraft.

The system of Didymus and Dimorph after the collision with the DART mission. Image: ASI

Despite the significant amount of accumulatedresources, the first attempts were unsuccessful, the ESA notes. For example, on August 25, observation from 25 sites in Portugal, Spain and Algeria was disrupted due to adverse weather conditions.

Scientists achieved their first success on October 15 inthe result of the deployment of six telescopes in northern Oklahoma in the United States. One of them caught the decay of the star by 0.13 s. After that, on October 18, two teams of researchers in Grenada in Spain and in Japan observed an eclipse that clearly matched the predictions.

The researchers note that the observationscovering the stars with Dedim will help to assess with high accuracy how the trajectories of the asteroid and its satellite have changed as a result of the DART mission, and in addition, to develop a universal technology that is suitable for observing any near-Earth objects.

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On the cover: illustration of an asteroid occultation of a star. Image: NASA / ESA / Greg Bacon (STScI)