Astronomer Scott Sheppard wrote a perspective piece titled “In the Sun’s Glow” in the journal Science.
Sheppard is an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii and believes scientists should look more closely for near-Earth objects (NEOs) in space in the direction of the Sun. He notes that most observations are often made in the night sky, but NEOs such as asteroids that pose a potential threat to Earth can lurk between the Sun and Earth, some of which have been discovered recently.
One such near-Earth asteroid (NEA) was discovered orbiting Venus, and another was discovered with the shortest known orbital period around the Sun. The night sky is studied more often because the light from the Sun does not interfere with observations. However, Shepherd notes that the technology already exists to observe the sky in the direction of the Sun during twilight.
The “Twilight Telescope” surveys Shepard and others may conduct going forward will help find “city killers,” NEOs at least 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter. Current models indicate that about 90% of “planet-killer” NEOs have been discovered; however, only about half of the killer cities have been found.
“The main reason we haven’t found all the ‘city killers’ is simply because we haven’t been watching the sky at the same depth for years and years to find them,” Shepard told Space.com.
“We’re doing a full survey, looking for anything moving around the orbit of Venus, which is somewhere we haven’t really explored very deeply in the past with anything other than small one-meter telescopes.” It’s quite difficult to do, and usually larger telescopes don’t have a very large field of view, so you can’t cover a lot of sky,” Shepherd said.
You can read Shepherd’s article here.
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