[ExI] Asteroid on track for possible (updated probability of 1:28) Mars hit
Amara Graps
amara at amara.com
Fri Jan 4 19:07:59 UTC 2008
More observations of the possible Mars crosser, have now slightly
downgraded the probability of Mars impact to 1 in 28.
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news154.html
Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com>:
>I have yet to understand just how it is that astronomers are able to
>specify so precisely what stars they are observing, since the planet is
>revolving around the local star, and the star is revolving around the
>galaxy and everything is shifting, and I've never seen a positional
>database on the internet before. I would think we would need to
>calculate observation-altitudes, telescopic angle, the precise time and
>position, etc. etc. But instead, apparently the relative position of
>the stars is stable enough to be conveyed as "eh, look left to that big
>bright one each night" ??
The stars' and other celestial (galactic) objects' movement with respect
to our solar system is not significant enough usually to require
tracking the parallaxes, so for first approximation, consider the stars
fixed and put the objects on a common Celestial Coordinates RA/Dec J2000
system. For the solar system bodies, use SPICE and the US Naval
Ephemeris data.
======================
STAR CATALOGS ONLINE
======================
Should be using:
Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/
Information below, extracted from the CDS web site.
Catalogues and files available at CDS
Version of 29-Dec-2007
# B. Copies of external databases, regularly updated. (22 catalogues)
# I. Astrometric Data (262 catalogues)
# II. Photometric Data (252 catalogues)
# III. Spectroscopic Data (218 catalogues)
# IV. Cross-Identifications (25 catalogues)
# V. Combined data (113 catalogues)
# VI. Miscellaneous (104 catalogues)
# VII. Non-stellar Objects (211 catalogues)
# VIII. Radio and Far-IR data (82 catalogues)
# IX. High-Energy data (29 catalogues)
# Tables from Astronomy and Astrophysics (2118 catalogues)
# Tables from Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series (1168 catalogues)
# Tables from Astronomical Journal (1135 catalogues)
# Tables from J.AN (25 catalogues)
# Tables from Astronomicheskii Zhurnal (Russian) (100 catalogues)
# Tables from J.AcA (36 catalogues)
# Tables from Astrophysical Journal (633 catalogues)
# Tables from Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (599 catalogues)
# Tables from J.BaltA (26 catalogues)
# Tables from Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
(610 catalogues)
# Tables from Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan (40
catalogues)
# Tables from Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
(128 catalogues)
# Tables from Pis'ma v Astronomicheskii Zhurnal (Astronomy Letters)
(93 catalogues)
# Tables from publications from other journals (139 catalogues)
# Catalogues ordered by their Usual Name (1929 catalogues)
# Catalogues with Additional Material
The Astronomical Database
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/
The SIMBAD astronomical database provides basic data,
cross-identifications, bibliography and measurements for astronomical
objects outside the solar system. SIMBAD can be queried by object name,
coordinates and various criteria. Lists of objects and scripts can be
submitted.
Statistics
Simbad contains on 2008.01.04
3899855 objects
11723594 identifiers
215425 bibliographic references
5749563 citations of objects in papers
----------
Catalog service is VizieR Service
http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR
VizieR provides access to the most complete library of published
astronomical catalogues and data tables available on line, organized in
a self-documented database. Query tools allow the user to select
relevant data tables and to extract and format records matching given
criteria. Specific care has been taken for optimizing access to some
very large catalogues such as UCAC2, the USNO-B1, or the 2MASS last
release.
VizieR is a joint effort of CDS (Centre de Données astronomiques de
Strasbourg) and ESA-ESRIN (Information Systems Division). VizieR has
been available since 1996. Note that VizieR does not contain all
available online catalogues; some catalogues are not suitable and some
less frequently used catalogues have not yet been incorporated into the
VizieR database. These last ones can be accessed by FTP from the
Astronomer's Bazaar.
Quick Search For an immediate search by position across one or
several catalogues.
a query in VizieR can be achieved:
* either in the traditional way of stepping through the following
actions:
1. select one or a few catalogues to be queried
2. define your constraints (selection on columns) and the result layout
(choice of the columns to display, the format, the sorting order, etc).
3. Get the results in a tabular form. Correlated data may be found by a
simple mouse click.
4. Full Display of individual rows if wished; correlated data may be
found when existing.
This traditional way accepts lists of contraints or targets saved
in a file.
* or as a global search around a position on the sky addressed to all or
to a subset of catalogues existing in VizieR: just fill the Target box
and for more details, see the pages about Query from a Position.
# the results can also be formatted as tables readily useable by your
favorite tools:
* in TSV (tab-separated values) which can be easily interpreted by your
favorite spreadsheet utility; files generated in this format can also be
used to re-issue queries to VizieR with the Query from a file facility.
* in several flavours of XML for interpretation by programs:
o VOTable is a fully XML-compliant format containing both the
data and their associated meta-data;
o VOTable(CSV) is a replacement for astrores format where the
meta-data in XML, but the data are keept as tab-separated values
which are easier to process by e.g. Perl scripts;
o KMZ/KML for Google-sky applications.
* in FITS format for astronomically-oriented applications
The 100 most popular catalogue, according to their frequency of usage
in VizieR.
(since 09 Dec 1997)
09.10% (II/246) 2MASS All-Sky Catalog of Point Sources (Cutri+ 2003)
04.77% (I/284) The USNO-B1.0 Catalog (Monet+ 2003)
03.22% (I/239) The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues (ESA 1997)
02.91% (I/271) The GSC 2.2 Catalogue (STScI, 2001)
02.60% (I/259) The Tycho-2 Catalogue (Hog+ 2000)
02.13% (I/252) The USNO-A2.0 Catalogue (Monet+ 1998)
01.56% (II/156A) IRAS Faint Source Catalog, |b| > 10, Version 2.0
(Moshir+ 1989)
01.32% (II/125) IRAS catalogue of Point Sources, Version 2.0 (IPAC 1986)
01.26% (II/250) Combined General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2004)
01.17% (I/254) The HST Guide Star Catalog, Version 1.2 (Lasker+ 1996)
01.17% (II/214A) Combined General Catalogue of Variable Stars
(Kholopov+ 1998)
00.94% (I/289) UCAC2 Catalogue (Zacharias+ 2003)
00.77% (I/196) Hipparcos Input Catalogue, Version 2 (Turon+ 1993)
00.68% (I/280A) All-sky Compiled Catalogue of 2.5 million stars
(Kharchenko 2001)
00.67% (B/denis) The DENIS database (DENIS Consortium, 2005)
00.65% (III/135A) Henry Draper Catalogue and Extension (Cannon+
1918-1924; ADC 1989)
00.63% (II/225) Catalog of Infrared Observations, Edition 5 (Gezari+ 1999)
00.62% (II/241) 2MASS Catalog Intermediate Data Release (IPAC/UMass, 2000)
00.61% (IX/10A) ROSAT All-Sky Bright Source Catalogue (1RXS) (Voges+ 1999)
00.59% (V/50) Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed. (Hoffleit+, 1991)
00.49% (I/197A) Tycho Input Catalogue, Revised version (Egret+ 1992)
00.48% (I/131A) SAO Star Catalog J2000 (SAO Staff 1966; USNO, ADC 1990)
00.48% (VIII/65) 1.4GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) (Condon+ 1998)
00.47% (I/275) The AC 2000.2 Catalogue (Urban+ 2001)
00.42% (II/215) uvby-beta Catalogue (Hauck+ 1997)
00.39% (I/146) Positions and Proper Motions - North (Roeser+, 1988)
00.38% (I/250) The Tycho Reference Catalogue (Hog+ 1998)
00.38% (I/122) Bonner Durchmusterung (Argelander 1859-1903)
00.37% (IX/29) ROSAT All-Sky Survey Faint Source Catalog (Voges+ 2000)
00.37% (I/246) The ACT Reference Catalog (Urban+ 1997)
00.35% (III/182) HDE Charts: positions, proper motions (Nesterov+ 1995)
00.34% (II/126) IRAS Serendipitous Survey Catalog (IPAC 1986)
00.30% (II/252) The DENIS database, 2nd Release (DENIS Consortium, 2003)
00.30% (V/98) MSX Infrared Astrometric Catalog (Egan+ 1996)
00.28% (III/31B) Michigan catalogue for the HD stars, vol. 1 (Houk+, 1975)
00.28% (I/255) The HST Guide Star Catalog, Version GSC-ACT (Lasker+ 1996-99)
00.28% (II/7A) UBVRIJKLMNH Photoelectric Catalogue (Morel+ 1978)
00.27% (I/193) Positions and Proper Motions - South (Bastian+ 1993)
00.26% (I/237) The Washington Visual Double Star Catalog, 1996.0
(Worley+, 1996)
00.26% (I/61B) AGK3 Catalogue (Dieckvoss, Heckmann 1975)
00.26% (III/133) Michigan Catalogue of HD stars, Vol.4 (Houk+, 1988)
00.25% (VII/155) Third Reference Cat. of Bright Galaxies (RC3) (de
Vaucouleurs+ 1991)
00.25% (I/267) The APM-North Catalogue (McMahon+, 2000)
00.25% (I/220) The HST Guide Star Catalog, Version 1.1 (Lasker+ 1992)
00.25% (III/214) Michigan Catalogue of HD stars, Vol.5 (Houk+, 1999)
00.25% (V/70A) Nearby Stars, Preliminary 3rd Version (Gliese+ 1991)
00.24% (VIII/15) Parkes Radio Sources Catalogue (PKSCAT90) (Wright+ 1990)
00.23% (VII/1B) Revised New General Catalogue (Sulentic+, 1973)
00.23% (I/176) AGK3U (Bucciarelli+ 1992)
00.23% (I/261) The FON Astrographic Catalogue (FONAC) (Kislyuk+ 1999)
00.22% (III/80) Michigan Catalogue of HD stars, Vol.3 (Houk, 1982)
00.21% (IX/28A) ROSAT HRI Pointed Observations (1RXH) (ROSAT Team, 2000)
00.21% (V/107) MSX5C Infrared Point Source Catalog (Egan+ 1999)
00.21% (V/114) MSX6C Infrared Point Source Catalog (Egan+ 2003)
00.20% (VII/237) HYPERLEDA. I. Catalog of galaxies (Paturel+, 2003)
00.20% (B/hst) HST Archived Exposures Catalog (STScI, 2007)
00.20% (V/84) Strasbourg-ESO Catalogue of Galactic Planetary
Nebulae (Acker+, 1992)
00.19% (III/231) The Tycho-2 Spectral Type Catalog (Wright+, 2003)
00.19% (I/256) Carlsberg Meridian Catalogs (CMC, 1999)
00.19% (I/108) Cape Photographic Durchmusterung (Gill+ 1895-1900)
00.19% (I/268) UCAC1 Catalogue (Zacharias+ 2000)
00.19% (III/51B) Michigan Catalogue of HD stars, Vol.2 (Houk, 1978)
00.19% (V/15) SAO and Supplementary Data (Ochsenbein 1980)
00.18% (III/213) General Catalog of mean radial velocities
(Barbier-Brossat+, 2000)
00.18% (V/51) Data Inventory of Space-Based Obs, Ver 1.1 (Brotzman+ 1987)
00.18% (III/190B) WEB Catalog of Radial Velocities (Duflot+ 1995)
00.18% (I/114) Cordoba Durchmusterung (Thome 1892-1932)
00.17% (I/98A) NLTT Catalogue (Luyten, 1979)
00.17% (I/207) Preliminary list from Tycho observations (TIC data)
(Halbwachs+ 1994)
00.17% (V/102) SKY2000 - Master Star Catalog, Version 2 (Sande+ 1998)
00.17% (I/171) Astrographic Catalog Reference Stars (ACRS) (Corbin+ 1991)
00.17% (VII/26D) Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies (UGC) (Nilson 1973)
00.17% (VII/235) Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (11th Ed.) (Veron+, 2003)
00.17% (I/294) The UCAC2 Bright Star Supplement (Urban+, 2004)
00.17% (VII/119) Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC) (Paturel+ 1989)
00.16% (IX/30) Second ROSAT PSPC Catalog (ROSAT, 2000)
00.16% (VI/32) Bidelman-Parsons Spectroscopic/Bibliographic Cat
(Parsons+ 1980)
00.16% (VI/111) ISO Observation Log (ISO Data Centre, 2004)
00.16% (V/109) SKY2000 Catalog, Version 4 (Myers+ 2002)
00.16% (I/238A) Yale Trigonometric Parallaxes, Fourth Edition (van
Altena+ 1995)
00.15% (VII/215) Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (9th Ed.) (Veron+ 2000)
00.15% (VIII/38) The Parkes-MIT-NRAO 4.85GHz (PMN) Surveys
(Griffith+ 1993-1996)
00.15% (I/243) The PMM USNO-A1.0 Catalogue (Monet 1997)
00.15% (I/211) CCDM (Components of Double and Multiple stars)
(Dommanget+ 1994)
00.15% (I/208) The 90000 stars Supplement to the PPM Catalogue
(Roeser+, 1994)
00.15% (II/224) Catalogue of Stellar Diameters (CADARS)
(Pasinetti-Fracassini+ 2001)
00.15% (II/219) New Catalogue of Suspected Variable Stars
Supplement (Kazarovets+ 1998)
00.15% (VII/62A) Morphological Cat. of Gal. (MCG)
(Vorontsov-Velyaminov+, 1962-1974)
00.14% (J/A+A/431/773) CHARM2, an updated of CHARM catalog (Richichi+, 2005)
00.14% (II/2B) Two-Micron Sky Survey (TMSS) (Neugebauer+ 1969)
00.14% (VIII/13) A new catalog of 53522 4.85GHz sources (Becker+ 1991)
00.14% (IX/31) The WGACAT version of ROSAT sources (White+ 2000)
00.14% (VI/42) Identification of a Constellation From Position (Roman 1987)
00.14% (I/276) Tycho Double Star Catalogue (TDSC) (Fabricius+ 2002)
00.14% (I/154) Astrographic Catalogue, Zones -02 to +31 degrees (Roeser 1990)
00.14% (B/eso) ESO Science Archive Catalog (ESO, 2002)
00.13% (I/251) VLBI International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF)
(Ma+, 1997)
00.13% (V/117) Geneva-Copenhagen Survey of Solar neighbourhood
(Nordstrom+, 2004)
00.13% (B/cfht) Log of CFHT Exposures (CADC, 1979-)
00.13% (I/260) Visual Double Stars in Hipparcos (Dommanget+, 2000)
©ULP/CNRS - Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
======================
STAR CATALOGS OFFLINE
======================
----------
The above catalogs can be acquired and used OFFLINE, for more detailed
work. For example I'm using the HD, Tycho, and USNO catalogs, presently.
----------
USNO-A2.0
USNO-SA2.0
USNO-B1.0
UCAC1
UCAC2 (USNO CCD Astrographic Catalog)
GSC 1.1
GSC-ACT
GSC 2.2
2MASS Point-Source Catalog
Tycho-2
ACT (Astrographic Catalog / Tycho)
PPM (Positions and Proper Motions)
SAO
TD1
FAUST
HD (incl. HDE)
HDEC (HD Extension Charts)
Michigan HD
BSC or BS (Yale Bright Star Catalog)
MK (Morgan-Keenan-Kellman, aka MKK)
HR (Harvard Revised)
SDSS (Sloan)
AC 2000 (Astrographic Catalog)
BD (Bonner Durchmusterung)
CD (Cordoba Durchmusterung)
CpD (Cape Photographic Durchmusterung)
IUE Atlas of O-Type
IUE Atlas of B-Type
IUE Atlas of Normal Stars
ORFEUS / Berkeley Spectrograph
VWFC
UIT (UV Imaging Telescope)
TUES (Tubingen Echelle Spectrograph)
FUSE
FUSE Atlas of Galactic OB Stars
OAO-2 (Orbiting Astronomical Obs.)
INES (IUE Newly Extracted Spectra)
ANS UV Catalog of Point Sources (Astronomical Netherlands Satellite)
Second EUVE Source Catalog
Copernicus (OAO-3)
WUPPE
ORFEUS / IMAPS (ISM Abs-Profile Spectrograph)
"OAO-1
OAO-B"
Lanning 'Finding List of Faint UV-Bright Stars'
KUV (Kiso UV Catalog)
UVBS (UV Bright Star Spectrophotometric Catalog)
Faint Star Catalog
HD Identifications for Tycho-2 Stars (Fabricius)
TDSC (Tycho-2 Double Star Catalog)
WDS (Vashington Visual Double Star Catalog)
CMC (Carlsberg Meridian Catalogs)
GC (General Catalog)
FK5 (Fifth Fundamental Catalog)
Calactic O-type Stars (Garmany)
O Star Catalog (Goy)
Galactic O Stars (Cruz-Gonzalez)
Galactic O Star Catalog (Maiz-Appellaniz)
Catalog of Galactic OB Stars (Reed)
Luminous Stars in the [N/S] Milky Way
Spectral Atlases
Johann Bayer (Uranometria)
Flamsteed
----------
NAIF-SPICE
For solar system objects and geometry, space missions work, NAIF's SPICE
library is essential. NAIF developed and maintains SPICE in C, FORTRAN,
and IDL, FORTRAN being the primary, the IDL version being a DLM
interface to the CSPIE library.
SPICE is widely used in NASA, ESA, and the work from other space
agencies. SPICE is JPL's most valuable "product" of the last decades
(far and above the space missions themselves, in my opinion). This
little, essential JPL group have had to fight to have funding, fight to
keep the libraries free, and fight to have it not be ITAR (International
and Arm and Trade Regulations) controlled. It is perhaps the most
complete open-source astrodynamics library available.
Not only does it let you read in SPK ephemeris files for the planets and
moons, but it gives many useful functions for transforming orbit
elements, calculation occultations, and space mission trajectories.
Conversion between time representation constitutes much of SPICE use,
TDB, TDT, UTC, Julian Date, always respecting the current leapseconds
count.
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/
From the naif web site:
--------------------
Welcome to NASA's Solar System Exploration
Ancillary Information System
The Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF) offers an
information system named "SPICE" to assist scientists in planning and
interpreting scientific observations from space-borne instruments. SPICE
is also widely used in engineering tasks needing access to space
geometry.
SPICE is focused on solar system geometry, time, and related
information. The SPICE system includes a large suite of software, mostly
in the form of subroutines, that customers use to read SPICE files and
to compute derived observation geometry, such as altitude,
lattitude/longitude, and lighting angles. SPICE data and software may be
used within many popular computing environments. The software is offered
in Fortran, C and IDL®, with a Matlab interface in the works.
SPICE is used on NASA's solar system exploration missions, and some NASA
space physics and astrophysics missions. It is also being used as an
adjunct to local national capabilities on some non-U.S. missions such as
Mars Express, Rosetta, Venus Express and Hayabusa.
There is no charge to individuals to obtain SPICE data and software.
The export status with regard to SPICE components and services, and
other rules for using SPICE, are provided under the RULES link on this
website.
--------------------
--
Amara Graps, PhD www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado
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