A group of researchers is essay to ricochet wireless signals off a 500 - foot - wide asteroid during its closelipped flyby of Earth on Tuesday .
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program ( HAARP ) is aiming its antennas at asteroid 2010 XC15 , a place rock that ’s categorized as a dear - world potentially hazardous asteroid . The sweat is a mental testing campaign to to develop for a larger object , hump as Apophis , that will have a close encounter with our major planet in 2029 .
“ What ’s new and what we are endeavor to do is dig into asteroid Interior with long wavelength radio detection and ranging and radio telescope from the earth , ” Mark Haynes , tip investigator on the task and a radar organization engineer at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California , suppose in astatement . “ retentive wavelengths can penetrate the interior of an object much better than the radio wavelength used for communication . ”
The HAARP facility’s antenna array includes 180 antennas spread across 33 acres.Photo: HAARP
HAARP is a inquiry facility in Gakona , Alaska ( one that ’s been thesubject of plenty of conspiracy theories ) . It ’s made up of 180 high - frequency antenna , each standing at 72 feet marvelous and stretched across 33 acres . The installation transmits radio receiver beams toward the ionosphere , the ionized part of the aura that’slocatedabout 50 to 400 miles ( 80 to 600 kilometers ) above Earth ’s aerofoil . HAARP sends radio set signal to the ionosphere and waits to see how they return , in an effort to measure the disturbances do by the Sun , among other things .
The facilitylaunched a skill campaign in Octoberwith 13 experiment , include one that involved bounce signals off the Moon . At the time , HAARP researcher were considering direct a wireless signal to an asteroid to investigate the interior of the rocky body .
During today ’s experiment , the HAARP antennas in Alaska will beam the radio signals to the asteroid , and then scientists will determine if the ruminate signals arrive at antenna array at the University of New Mexico Long Wavelength Array and California ’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array .
HAARP will carry a continually chirping sign at slightly above and below 9.6 megahertz ; the chirp will restate at two - second intervals . At its airless approach shot on December 27 , the asteroid will be twice as far as the Moon is from Earth .
Tuesday ’s experimentation is to train for an upcoming meeting with an asteroid in 2029 . That potentially risky asteroid , formally known as 99942 Apophis , is around 1,210 feet ( 370 metre ) wide , and it will come to within 20,000 geographical mile ( 32,000 kilometers ) of Earth on April 13 , 2029 . The near - ground object was thought to pose a slight risk to Earth in 2068 , butNASA ruled that out .
Still , HAARP desire to poke into the asteroid to devise for potential risks in the future from space rocks . “ The more fourth dimension there is before a potential impact , the more option there are to strain to forefend it , ” Haynes said .
In September , NASA ’s DART spacecraftsmacked into a minor asteroidand successfully altered its orbit . Such a strategy could be one way to divert a outer space rock that threatens Earth .
Today ’s tryout shows the potential of using recollective wavelength radio signals to dig into the interiors of asteroid . “ If we can get the land - based systems up and running , then that will give us a lot of probability to seek to do upcountry detection of these objects , ” Haynes enounce .
More : A Powerful Recoil Effect Magnified NASA ’s Asteroid Deflection Experiment
Near - Earth objectOuter spacePhysical sciences
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