Astroblog: Hebe (maybe) in STEREO

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Hebe (maybe) in STEREO

Inspired by Comet Al, I've been hunting for asteroids in STEREO H1 images. This hasn't been helped by me having to do a heck of a lot of work (I'm finishing off assessment book keeping) and STEREO having its main data directory disappear. Anyway, I was looking for 5 Astraea (mag 11.8), one of Comet Al's targets. It should have been in the Hyades, but I couldn't find it. I went after 6 Hebe instead, because at mag 10 it was an easier target.

Well, I found something, and it's probably Hebe. I'm using SkyMap to locate asteroids in the field of view of the H1 camera. The left hand panel shows the cropped area from the STEREO images where Hebe should be. The x indicates where SkyMap says the asteroid should be, and the bracketed object is what I think is Hebe. The right hand panel shows the SkyMap view, with the track of Hebe and the approximate location of the object. Here is the animation showing the object scooting along. Here's the files and object locations.

20070501_001000_s4h1A.fts 886, 1014
20070501_065000_s4h1A.fts 892, 1014
20070501_193000_s4h1A.fts 904,1013
20070501_225000_s4h1A.fts 906, 1013

Now, the object isn't where SkyMap say it is. But of course, the H1 camera isn't on Earth, but out in space some way away from Earth, so of course the asteroid won't follow the SkyMap track. So armed with this knowledge, I'm pretty sure this is 6 Hebe, and now I can go back and look for Astraea.

(Big Tip of the Hat to Comet Al and Karl from the stereohunter list for showing me how to use the STEREO files search page. No small feat!)

Labels: animation, asteroids, Stereo Satellite