7 papers
Mare versus highland lunar impact flash light curve dichotomy
D. Athanasopoulos, A. Liakos, A. Z. Bonanos +5
We perform a comprehensive analysis of lunar impact flash (LIF) light curve shapes and their dependence on the lunar terrain, using the large sample of LIFs detected by NELIOTA ove…
The ESA Meerkat Asteroid Guard: a monitoring service for imminent impactors
Charlie Drury, Francesco Gianotto, Marco Fenucci +9
We present the Meerkat Asteroid Guard, an imminent impactor warning service developed and maintained by the European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC). T…
Rapid-response characterization of near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 during a Torino Scale 3 alert
Maxime Devogèle, Olivier R. Hainaut, Marco Micheli +32
On 27 December 2024, near-Earth object (NEO) 2024 YR was discovered by the ATLAS survey and identified as a virtual impactor. A few weeks later, it eventually reached level 3 o…
Astrometry, orbit determination, and thermal inertia of the Tianwen-2 target asteroid (469219) Kamo`oalewa
Marco Fenucci, Bojan NovakoviÄ, Pengfei Zhang +9
Context. (469219) Kamo`oalewa is a small near-Earth asteroid, which is currently a quasi-satellite of the Earth. Lightcurve measurements also reveal a rotation period of only about…
The fall of asteroid 2024 XA and the location of possible meteorites
Francesco Gianotto, Albino Carbognani, Marco Fenucci +18
Asteroid 2024 XA was discovered on 3 December 2024 at 05:54 UTC by the Bok telescope in Kitt Peak, Arizona, and impacted Earth about 10 hours later over a remote area of the Sa…
The Aegis Orbit Determination and Impact Monitoring System and services of the ESA NEOCC web portal
Marco Fenucci, Laura Faggioli, Francesco Gianotto +28
The NEO Coordination Centre (NEOCC) of the European Space Agency is an operational centre that, among other activities, computes the orbits of near-Earth objects and their probabil…