News / Education
First South Africa Student Discovers Asteroid.
Ernie Halberg, Discovers Asteroid 2010 DC2.
Ernie Halberg, Discovers Asteroid 2010 DC2 using the GRAS robotic telescopes.
Ernie Halberg's teacher issued him a challenge to discover a new asteroid. After several months of searching the night skies with Global Rent A Scope's (GRAS) online robotic telescopes and mentorship from Canadian Asteroid Hunter Andrew Lowe, Ernie has discovered Asteroid 2010 DC2.
The orbit of 2010 DC2, showing the position of the asteroid and the earth and the other inner planets on February 18, the day that Ernie saw it for the first time. The sun and earth and asteroid are almost in a straight line, which is the ideal position to see the asteroid at its brightest. Since Ernie was using a 10" (0.25m) remote access telescope in New Mexico, which is quite small, this is an important consideration.
Follow up observation image Andrew Lowe
Asteroid 2010 DC2 takes about 4.23 years to go around the sun, and is in the middle part of the asteroid belt. Its orbit is tilted about 13 degrees. This is quite typical. Size wise, 2010 DC2 is about 2 km. in diameter.
One of Ernie’s teachers, Adrian Meyer, had this to say, "When I teach my students about Chemistry, I use Astronomy. When I teach my students about Mathematics, I use Astronomy. When I teach my students about the Biology of being Human, I use Astronomy. If I had Astronomy as a subject at school, many years ago, my life would be very different."
Meyer Continued, "When I met Ernie Halberg about 4 years ago, I could see the desire in his eyes: he wanted to know more about the stars and planets. His passion for Astronomy was very evident."
Then during the beginning of 2009, I offered him the opportunity to do a deep space observation research project. I set a challenge for him: find an asteroid!"
And he did. 2010 DC 2 is his. It has become Ernie’s Asteroid.
Ernie Halberg, a 12th grade student at Hoërskool Goudveld, and member of ASSA/Space School Africa.
Andrew Lowe said "For many months, Ernie had been using the 10" (0.25m) G4 telescope at Global-Rent-A-Scope in New Mexico to look for a new asteroid. He uses the Internet and a script which tells the telescope where to shoot and at what time. He downloads the image files and looks for any unknown moving object against the fixed background of stars.
On the evening of Feb. 18, Ernie was shooting a discovery field at a right ascension of 10h46m00s and declination of +02d50'30" and a second field at 10h46m00s +02d10'30". While searching the first of these discovery fields, he noticed a reasonably bright unknown object. He measured the coordinates of the asteroid as it moved during 40 minutes, and sent me an email. I checked the positions and confirmed that the object was new, then downloaded the images myself for a look. Everything seemed fine, and I recommended to Ernie that he re-shoot the object the following night. The weather cooperated, and Ernie got a second night of data. He sent me all the information, and I forwarded it to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, MA. There, the data was analyzed and it was confirmed that the object seemed to be new, so it was assigned the designation 2010 DC2.
Email between Canada and South Africa was unreliable the following day, so even though I requested Ernie to shoot again for a third night, I shot the object myself and got a third night of data. With the third night, I could calculate an orbit which showed that 2010 DC2 was moving in a very typical orbit in the middle part of the asteroid belt.
I contacted Tim Spahr at the Minor Planet Center to check for additional data, and he found that the object had been photographed on Nov. 22, 2009, and Jan. 15, 2010. With a three-month chord, I checked for precovery data for 2010 DC2 to improve the orbit, but no other images of the asteroid were apparently recorded before Ernie's photographs on Feb. 18
Ernie also acquired additional images of 2010 DC2 on Feb. 22 and Feb. 24 to improve the orbit".
Ernie Halberg's teacher issued him a challenge to discover a new asteroid. After several months of searching the night skies with Global Rent A Scope's (GRAS) online robotic telescopes and mentorship from Canadian Asteroid Hunter Andrew Lowe, Ernie has discovered Asteroid 2010 DC2.
The orbit of 2010 DC2, showing the position of the asteroid and the earth and the other inner planets on February 18, the day that Ernie saw it for the first time. The sun and earth and asteroid are almost in a straight line, which is the ideal position to see the asteroid at its brightest. Since Ernie was using a 10" (0.25m) remote access telescope in New Mexico, which is quite small, this is an important consideration.
Follow up observation image Andrew Lowe
One of Ernie’s teachers, Adrian Meyer, had this to say, "When I teach my students about Chemistry, I use Astronomy. When I teach my students about Mathematics, I use Astronomy. When I teach my students about the Biology of being Human, I use Astronomy. If I had Astronomy as a subject at school, many years ago, my life would be very different."
Meyer Continued, "When I met Ernie Halberg about 4 years ago, I could see the desire in his eyes: he wanted to know more about the stars and planets. His passion for Astronomy was very evident."
Then during the beginning of 2009, I offered him the opportunity to do a deep space observation research project. I set a challenge for him: find an asteroid!"
And he did. 2010 DC 2 is his. It has become Ernie’s Asteroid.
Ernie Halberg, a 12th grade student at Hoërskool Goudveld, and member of ASSA/Space School Africa.
Andrew Lowe said "For many months, Ernie had been using the 10" (0.25m) G4 telescope at Global-Rent-A-Scope in New Mexico to look for a new asteroid. He uses the Internet and a script which tells the telescope where to shoot and at what time. He downloads the image files and looks for any unknown moving object against the fixed background of stars.
On the evening of Feb. 18, Ernie was shooting a discovery field at a right ascension of 10h46m00s and declination of +02d50'30" and a second field at 10h46m00s +02d10'30". While searching the first of these discovery fields, he noticed a reasonably bright unknown object. He measured the coordinates of the asteroid as it moved during 40 minutes, and sent me an email. I checked the positions and confirmed that the object was new, then downloaded the images myself for a look. Everything seemed fine, and I recommended to Ernie that he re-shoot the object the following night. The weather cooperated, and Ernie got a second night of data. He sent me all the information, and I forwarded it to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, MA. There, the data was analyzed and it was confirmed that the object seemed to be new, so it was assigned the designation 2010 DC2.
Email between Canada and South Africa was unreliable the following day, so even though I requested Ernie to shoot again for a third night, I shot the object myself and got a third night of data. With the third night, I could calculate an orbit which showed that 2010 DC2 was moving in a very typical orbit in the middle part of the asteroid belt.
I contacted Tim Spahr at the Minor Planet Center to check for additional data, and he found that the object had been photographed on Nov. 22, 2009, and Jan. 15, 2010. With a three-month chord, I checked for precovery data for 2010 DC2 to improve the orbit, but no other images of the asteroid were apparently recorded before Ernie's photographs on Feb. 18
Ernie also acquired additional images of 2010 DC2 on Feb. 22 and Feb. 24 to improve the orbit".
Using the GRAS global remote telescope network Ernie homed in on his target. His choice instrument was GRAS004 located in New Mexico, USA.
