Environmental effects of large impacts on the earth; relation to extinction mechanisms

Since Alvarez et al., discovered a worldwide approx. cm-thick layer of fine sediments laden with platinum group elements in approximately chondritic proportions exactly at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (C-T) boundary, and proposed bolide-impact as triggering mass extinctions, many have studied this hypothesis and the layer itself with its associated spherules and shocked quartz. At issue is whether the mass extinctions, and this horizon has an impact versus volcanic origin. A critical feature of the Alvarez hypothesis is the suggestion that the bolide or possibly a shower of objects delivered to the earth approx. 0.6 x 10 to the 18th power g of material which resulted in aerosol-sized ejecta such that global insolation was drastically reduced for significant periods. Such an event would lower temperatures on continents and halt photosynthesis in the upper 200 m of th eocean. The latter would strangle the marine food chain and thus produce the major marine faunal extinctions which mark the C-T boundary. Crucial issues examined include: What are the dynamics of atmospheric flow occurring upon impact of a large bolide with the earth; What is the size distributions of the very fine impact ejecta and how do these compare to the models of ejecta which are used to model the earth's radiative thermal balance. The flow field due to passage of a 10 km diameter bolide through an exponential atmosphere and the interaction of the gas flow and bolide with the solid ear was calculated. The CO2 released upon impact onto shallow marine carbonate sections was modeled and found that the mass of CO2 released exceeds the present 10 to the 18th power g CO2 budget of the earth's atmosphere by several times. Using the calculations of Kasting and Toon it was found that to compute the temperature rise of the earth's surface as a function of CO2 content, it was found that sudden and prolonged global increases are induced from impact of 20 to 50 km radius projectiles and propose that sudden terrestrial greenhouse-induced heating, not cooling, produced the highly variable extinctions seen at the C-T boundary

Simulation of Sky Surveys with the Flyeye Telescope

ESA's Flyeye telescope is designed with a very large field of view (FoV) in order to scan the sky for unknown near-Earth Objects (NEOs). For typical exposure times of 40 s, the telescope is able to detect objects with a limiting magnitude up to 21.5. The aim is to observe those NEOs that are going to hit the Earth within a few weeks or days, in advance of impact. In order to estimate the detection rate of NEOs with the Flyeye telescope, a synthetic population of Earth threatening asteroids is created by means of the software NEOPOP. Then, the true anomalies and longitudes of the ascending node of these objects are modified in order to generate about 2500 impactors. In the simulations almost three impacts can be detected per year from NEOs down to 1 m using only one Flyeye telescope. When operating two telescopes simultaneously, one at Monte Mufara and one at La Silla, four detected impacts per year are expected. Nonetheless, it is estimated that about 15.6% of the Earth impactors will be very difficult to be detected using ground-based telescopes due to the fact that they are approaching us from the Sun.Comment: In Proc. 1st NEO and Debris Detection Conference (Darmstadt, Germany, 22-24 January 2019

Analysis of the technical biases of meteor video cameras used in the CILBO system

In this paper, we analyse the technical biases of two intensified video cameras, ICC7 and ICC9, of the double-station meteor camera system CILBO (Canary Island Long-Baseline Observatory). This is done to thoroughly understand the effects of the camera systems on the scientific data analysis. We expect a number of errors or biases that come from the system: instrumental errors, algorithmic errors and statistical errors. We analyse different observational properties, in particular the detected meteor magnitudes, apparent velocities, estimated goodness-of-fit of the astrometric measurements with respect to a great circle and the distortion of the camera. We find that, due to a loss of sensitivity towards the edges, the cameras detect only about 55 % of the meteors it could detect if it had a constant sensitivity. This detection efficiency is a function of the apparent meteor velocity. We analyse the optical distortion of the system and the "goodness-of-fit" of individual meteor position measurements relative to a fitted great circle. The astrometric error is dominated by uncertainties in the measurement of the meteor attributed to blooming, distortion of the meteor image and the development of a wake for some meteors. The distortion of the video images can be neglected. We compare the results of the two identical camera systems and find systematic differences. For example, the peak magnitude distribution for ICC9 is shifted by about 0.2–0.4 mag towards fainter magnitudes. This can be explained by the different pointing directions of the cameras. Since both cameras monitor the same volume in the atmosphere roughly between the two islands of Tenerife and La Palma, one camera (ICC7) points towards the west, the other one (ICC9) to the east. In particular, in the morning hours the apex source is close to the field-of-view of ICC9. Thus, these meteors appear slower, increasing the dwell time on a pixel. This is favourable for the detection of a meteor of a given magnitude

Mining archival data from wide-field astronomical surveys in search of near-Earth objects

Context. Increasing our knowledge of the orbits and compositions of near-earth objects (NEOs) is important for a better understanding of the evolution of the Solar System and life. The detection of serendipitous NEO appearances among the millions of archived exposures from large astronomical imaging surveys can provide a contribution which is complementary to NEO surveys. Aims. Using the ASTROWISE information system, this work aims to assess the detectability rate, the achieved recovery rate and the quality of astrometry when data mining the European Southern Observatory (ESO) archive for the OmegaCAM wide-field imager at the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). Methods. We developed an automatic pipeline that searches for NEO appearances inside the ASTROWISE environment. Throughout the recovery process the pipeline uses several public web tools (SSOIS, NEODyS, JPL Horizons) to identify possible images that overlap with the positions of NEOs, and acquires information on the NEOs’ predicted position and other properties (e.g. magnitude, rate, and direction of motion) at the time of observations. Considering these properties, the pipeline narrows down the search to potentially detectable NEOs, searches for streak-like objects across the images, and finds a matching streak for the NEOs. Results. We recovered 196 appearances of NEOs from a set of 968 appearances predicted to be recoverable. It includes appearances for three NEOs that were on the impact risk list at that point. These appearances occurred well before their discovery. The subsequent risk assessment using the extracted astrometry removes these NEOs from the risk list. More generally, we estimate a detectability rate of ~0.05 per NEO at a signal-to-noise ratio higher than 3 for NEOs in the OmegaCAM archive. Our automatic recovery rates are 40% and 20% for NEOs on the risk list and the full list, respectively. The achieved astrometric and photometric accuracy is on average 0.12″ and 0.1 mag. Conclusions. These results show the high potential of the archival imaging data of the ground-based wide-field surveys as useful instruments for the search, (p)recovery, and characterization of NEOs. Highly automated approaches, as possible using ASTROWISE, make this undertaking feasible.This work was executed as part of ESA contract no. 4000134667/21/D/MRP (CARMEN) with their Planetary Defence Office. The Big Data Layer of the Target Field Lab project “Mining Big Data” was used. The Target Field Lab is supported by the Northern Netherlands Alliance (SNN) and is financially supported by the European Regional Development Fund. The data science software system ASTROWISE runs on powerful databases and computing clusters at the Donald Smits Center of the University of Groningen and is supported, among other parties, by NOVA (the Dutch Research School for Astronomy). TSR acknowledges funding from the NEO-MAPP project (H2020-EU-2-1-6/870377). This work was (partially) supported by the Spanish MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” by the “European Union” through grant PID2021-122842OB-C21, and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”) through grant CEX2019-000918-M

Lunar impact flash results and space surveillance activities at Kryoneri Observatory

We present current and future activities regarding lunar impact flash and NEO observations and satellite tracking from Kryoneri Observatory. In particular, we present results from the ESA-funded NELIOTA program, which has been monitoring the Moon for impact flashes since early 2017. Using the 1.2 m Kryoneri telescope, which is equipped with two high frame-rate cameras recording simultaneously in two optical bands, NELIOTA has recorded over 170 validated lunar impact flashes, while another ~90 have been characterized as suspected. We present statistical results concerning the sizes, the masses and the appearance frequency of the meteoroids in the vicinity of the Earth, as well as the temperatures developed during the impacts. Moreover, we present the capabilities of the Kryoneri telescope as a sensor for satellite tracking and the future plans regarding the provision of high-quality services for both the Planetary Defense activities of ESA (S2P/PDO) and the European Union's Space Surveillance and Tracking programme (EU/SST).Comment: 14 pages, 19 figures. Proceedings of the 2nd NEO and Debris Detection Conference, Darmstadt, Germany, 24-26 January 202

The Marco Polo mission: a sample return from a low-albedo Near Earth Object in the ESA Cosmic Vision Program 2015-2025

Marco Polo is a sample return mission to a Near-Earth Object (NEO) which was originally proposed as a joint European-Japanese mission for the scientific program Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 of the European Space Agency (ESA) in June 2007 and selected for an assessment study until fall 2009. The main goal of this mission is to return a sample from a dark taxonomic type (low albedo) NEO for detailed laboratory analysis in order to answer questions related to planetary formation, evolution and the origin of Life. In addition, it will provide detailed information on the physical and chemical properties of a body belonging to the population of potential Earth impactors, and therefore it is also directly relevant to the problems of risk assessment and mitigation. We review basic information on NEOs, potential targets for a sample return mission and the Marco Polo mission, with emphasis on their relevance to impact risk assessment and mitigation. More details on the Marco Polo mission and scientific objectives can be found in [1]

Momentum Enhancement during Kinetic Impacts in the Low-intermediate-strength Regime: Benchmarking and Validation of Impact Shock Physics Codes

In 2022 September, the DART spacecraft (NASA’s contribution to the Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration) will impact the asteroid Dimorphos, the secondary in the Didymos system. The crater formation and material ejection will affect the orbital period. In 2027, Hera (ESA’s contribution to AIDA) will investigate the system, observe the crater caused by DART, and characterize Dimorphos. Before Hera’s arrival, the target properties will not be well-constrained. The relationships between observed orbital change and specific target properties are not unique, but Hera’s observations will add additional constraints for the analysis of the impact event, which will narrow the range of feasible target properties. In this study, we use three different shock physics codes to simulate momentum transfer from impactor to target and investigate the agreement between the results from the codes for well-defined target materials. In contrast to previous studies, care is taken to use consistent crushing behavior (e.g., distension as a function of pressure) for a given porosity for all codes. First, we validate the codes against impact experiments into a regolith simulant. Second, we benchmark the codes at the DART impact scale for a range of target material parameters (10%–50% porosity, 1.4–100 kPa cohesion). Aligning the crushing behavior improves the consistency of the derived momentum enhancement between the three codes to within +/−5% for most materials used. Based on the derived mass–velocity distributions from all three codes, we derive scaling parameters that can be used for studies of the ejecta curtain