International Asteroid Warning Network Timing Campaign: 2019 XS

Davide Farnocchia, Vishnu Reddy, James M. Bauer, Elizabeth M. Warner, Marco Micheli, Matthew J. Payne, Tony Farnham, Michael S. Kelley, David D. Balam, Anatoly P. Barkov, Daniel Berteşteanu, Mirel Birlan, Bryce T. Bolin, Melissa J. Brucker, Luca Buzzi, Kenneth C. Chambers, Lukas Demetz, Anlaug A. Djupvik, Leonid Elenin, Paolo FiniRandy Flynn, Gianni Galli, Xing Gao, Marcin Gȩdek, Mikael Granvik, Werner Hasubick, Alexander L. Ivanov, Viktor A. Ivanov, Natalya V. Ivanova, Cristóvão Jaques, Anni Kasikov, Myung Jin Kim, David Lane, Hee Jae Lee, Bin Li, Fan Li, Tim Lister, Vadim E. Lysenko, Eugene A. Magnier, Nawaz Mahomed, Jennie McCormick, Darrel Moon, Alessandro Nastasi, Dan A. Nedelcu, Guenther Neue, Elisabeta Petrescu, Marcel Popescu, Enrico Prosperi, Rafał Reszelewski, Dong Goo Roh, Filipp D. Romanov, Toni Santana-Ros, Anastasia Schmalz, Sergei Schmalz, James V. Scotti, Robert Seaman, Nick Sioulas, Adrian B. Sonka, David J. Tholen, Madalina M. Trelia, Richard Wainscoat, Xin Wang, Guy Wells, Robert Weryk, Nikolai A. Yakovenko, Quanzhi Ye, Hong Suh Yim, Chengxing Zhai, Chen Zhang, Haibin Zhao, Tinglei Zhu, Michał Żołnowski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

As part of the International Asteroid Warning Network's observational exercises, we conducted a campaign to observe near-Earth asteroid 2019 XS around its close approach to Earth on 2021 November 9. The goal of the campaign was to characterize errors in the observation times reported to the Minor Planet Center, which become an increasingly important consideration as astrometric accuracy improves and more fast-moving asteroids are observed. As part of the exercise, a total of 957 astrometric observations of 2019 XS during the encounter were reported and subsequently were analyzed to obtain the corresponding residuals. While the timing errors are typically smaller than 1 s, the reported times appear to be negatively biased, i.e., they are generally earlier than they should be. We also compared the observer-provided position uncertainty with the cross-track residuals, which are independent of timing errors. A large fraction of the estimated uncertainties appear to be optimistic, especially when <0 2. We compiled individual reports for each observer to help identify and remove the root cause of any possible timing error and improve the uncertainty quantification process. We suggest possible sources of timing errors and describe a simple procedure to derive reliable, conservative position uncertainties.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number156
JournalPlanetary Science Journal
Volume3
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Geophysics
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Space and Planetary Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'International Asteroid Warning Network Timing Campaign: 2019 XS'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this