5 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…
Astrometric follow-up of near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 during a Torino scale level 3 alert
Marco Micheli, Maxime Devogèle, Larry Denneau +38
The discovery of 2024 YR4 presented the planetary defense community with the most significant impact threat in almost two decades, reaching level 3 on the Torino scale. The communi…
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…
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…