#teamradar — Public Fediverse posts

#TeamRadar at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory is hiring someone to do the on-site work at the Green Bank Telescope: https://jobs.dayforcehcm.com/en-US/aui/CANDIDATEPORTAL/jobs/1313 .

This requires living in Green Bank, West Virginia, or lots of travel through the mountains.

As well as it being unavailable for spacecraft communications; #TeamRadar observations with DSS-14 have been canceled since September: https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/goldstone_asteroid_schedule.html

QT SpaceNews @spacenewsinc.bsky.social‬
2025 November 11

Key antenna in NASA’s Deep Space Network damaged

One of the largest antennas in NASA’s Deep Space Network was damaged in September and may be out of service for an extended period, further straining the system.
https://spacenews.com/key-antenna-in-nasas-deep-space-network-damaged/
https://bsky.app/profile/spacenewsinc.bsky.social/post/3m5e7ogiros2z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mcnees/115463782589358330

#TeamRadar

#TeamRadar

Lazio et al. 2025, "The Next-Generation Ground-Based Planetary Radar" - https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/final_reports/NextGeneration-PlanetaryRadar-final%202025-09-19.pdf

Emerson Wittaker: talking about near earth asteroid binary 1999 KW4: Moshup 1.5km and Squannit 0.5km, mutual orbit in 17 hours. Measured by #TeamRadar from Arecibo (😭)

Evolution of system depends on YORP effect, relative spins of bodies, and shapes.

Doing shape-model libration simulations now.

#SolarSystemInContext

Today on the #arXiv :

White et al. 2025, "Ground-Based Radar Tracking of Near-Earth Objects With VLBI Radio Telescopes: 2024 MK Test Case" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15684

#TeamRadar

Transmitting with DSS-43 and DSS-35 and receiving with antennas across Australia.

I have a 3D print of the old #TeamRadar #1998KY26 shape model, which was always suspiciously symmetric - because it turned out to be aliased.

Maybe I should order a new one.

QT Agata Rożek @agastro.bsky.social‬
2025 September 18

Check out our tiny rock featured by @esoastronomy !

Now available in Nature Comms: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63697-4

We measured the size using the new lightcurve shape models and old radar data #TeamRadar

https://bsky.app/profile/agastro.bsky.social/post/3lz44rubvus26

#TeamRadar has a large block of presentations at #EPSCDPS2025:

Zambrano Marin reviews the Arecibo radar data archive - https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/EPSC-DPS2025-845.html

Cannon et al. presents shape models of the contact binaries 2024 ON and 2000 RS11: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/EPSC-DPS2025-1068.html

The #TeamRadar sessions at #EPSCDPS2025 begin with Anne Virkki reviewing the relationships between the properties of planetary surfaces and how they scatter radar beams: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/EPSC-DPS2025-52.html

Rick highlighted #TeamRadar radar astrometry of #Apophis and its role in ruling out any possibility of impact in the foreseeable future.

Per Brozovic et al. 2018 - https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/brozovic.etal.apophis.2018.pdf

Also today on the #arXiv:

Fan, Wright, & Lazio 2025, "Detecting Extraterrestrial Civilizations That Employ an Earth-level Deep Space Network" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15425

Updating studies of the radio leakage from spacecraft communications and #TeamRadar observations.

#TeamRadar

"NASA’s Europa Clipper Radar Instrument Proves Itself at Mars"

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/nasas-europa-clipper-radar-instrument-proves-itself-at-mars/

It is easier to make resolved images of Betelgeuse itself than it is to see the companion star, because making images of Betelgeuse does not require dynamic range of near a hundred.

And, in case anyone is confused:

Speckle imaging as done here is entirely different from speckle tracking as done by #TeamRadar.

Since I was asked:

Interstellar object 3I / #A11pl3Z will not be passing close enough to Earth to be observed by #TeamRadar.

Alas for the loss of Arecibo (although depending on the exact size of 3I, even Arecibo might not have been enough).

Nice article about #TeamRadar by Nola Taylor Tillman in Space.com today:

https://www.space.com/astronomy/asteroids/after-the-arecibo-collapse-in-2020-a-lone-nasa-radar-dish-in-the-mojave-desert-stepped-up-as-a-leading-asteroid-hunter

#TeamRadar presentations at #PDC2025, continued:

Pupillo et al., "Radar Observation of Asteroids 2005 LW3 and 2006 WB with European Radio Telescopes" - https://iaa.4hdt.ro/event/1/contributions/111/ .

Venditti et al., "The potentially hazardous binary asteroid (285263) 1998 QE2" - https://iaa.4hdt.ro/event/1/contributions/150/

#TeamRadar presentations at #PDC2025 :

Benner et al., "Status of Near-Earth Asteroid Radar Observations at Goldstone" https://iaa.4hdt.ro/event/1/contributions/140/

Brozovic et al., "3D shape model and spin state of 99942 Apophis estimated from 2013 radar and lightcurve data" https://iaa.4hdt.ro/event/1/contributions/9/

Calves et al., "Radar and optical tracking of Near-Earth Objects at the University of Tasmania" https://iaa.4hdt.ro/event/1/contributions/105/

Horiuchi et al., "Southern Hemisphere Asteroid Radar Program (SHARP)" https://iaa.4hdt.ro/event/1/contributions/17/

#WithoutNSF we would not have had the Arecibo Observatory until 2020; and we would not have the Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array, or the Very Long Baseline Array - all of which #TeamRadar has used to make sure that asteroids are not going to fall from the sky.

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Zambrano-Marin et al. 2025, "2020 BX12—The Last Binary Asteroid Discovered at Arecibo"

#TeamRadar

For comparison: Operating costs for #TeamRadar are about $1 per second of observing time.

QT David Shiffman, Ph.D.
‪@whysharksmatter.bsky.social‬
2025 April 15

In the wake of the ongoing disasters with funding streams, I'm seeing lots of folks suggest that scientists turn to social media crowdfunding to fund their research.

For about a decade I held the record for the social media crowdfunded project that got the most funding. I received about $9,000.
https://bsky.app/profile/whysharksmatter.bsky.social/post/3lmrm6phwjc2s

#TeamRadar #Apophis planning page, with the hope that we can do all of this 4 years from now: https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/apophis.2029.goldstone.planning.html

#TeamRadar presentations at #Apophis T-4:

Benner et al., "Goldstone Radar Observations of 99942 Apophis in 2029: Detailed Plans" - https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/apophis2025/pdf/2058.pdf

Horiuchi et al., "Southern Hemisphere Asteroid Radar Program (SHARP) and the Apophis Encounter in 2029" - https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/apophis2025/pdf/2037.pdf

It has also been nearly 20 years now since I got to help observe #Apophis with the Arecibo Observatory as a #TeamRadar summer student.

Woah.

For the record:

Detectability per unit time of Cebreros transmitting 20 kW at X-band with a 35 m dish is about ~1 billion times less than detectability per unit time for #TeamRadar transmitting CW from Goldstone and ~10 billion times less than for Arecibo.

Assuming a real-time waltz.

Today on the #arXiv:

Tortora et al. 2025, "Radio Science Investigations for the Heavy Metal Mission to Asteroid (216) Kleopatra" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.15217

The Heavy Metal mission proposal would visit Kleopatra, understood as the barely-not-disrupted core of a protoplanet.

#TeamRadar approves.

And I recommend these two #TeamRadar presentations:

Benner et al. 2025, "Status of Near-Earth Asteroid Radar Observations at Goldstone" - https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/pdf/1803.pdf

Fernandez et al. 2025, "Rotationally-Resolved Radar Scattering Properties of (433) Eros" - https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/pdf/2421.pdf

Today on the #arXiv:

Cannon et al. 2025, "Shape and spin state model of contact binary (388188) 2006 DP14 using combined radar and optical observations" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01499

Richard Cannon did good work on this latest from #TeamRadar.

#TeamRadar is obvious from a long way away.

QT Phil Plait @badastro
2025 February 28

So let's say you're an alien and you point your telescope at Earth.

What do you see?

[written by me, for SciAm]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-aliens-know-were-here/

https://mastodon.social/@badastro/114082533069129638

@michael_w_busch Yikes! #TeamRadar have more disturbing observing stories than most.

For planetary scientists & astronomers:

#TeamRadar is holding a workshop on asteroid radar shape modeling this year, if you know any interested students or post-docs - https://sites.google.com/view/armw25.

The workshop is being done primarily virtually; with in-person sessions in Spain and Finland.

Thanks go to the organizing committee!

#TeamRadar presentations at #SBAG 32:

Aaron DeLeon describes the unusual binary asteroid system Atira: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad7814

Patrick Taylor gives an update on the ngRADAR project at Green Bank: https://ngradar.nrao.edu/

Additional background information on dark comets:

#TeamRadar observed the dark comet #1998KY26 in 1998: https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/ostro+1999_ky26_science.pdf . It is a lumpy ball ~30 m across.

The #Hayabusa2 spacecraft is now on its way there, with arrival in 2031 July.

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Stickle et al. 2024, "Tour of Asteroids for Characterization Observations (TACO): A Planetary Defense Asteroid Tour Concept" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad7a6c

@schmemela , @asrivkin , and company present a new concept for a flyby mission that visits numerous near Earth asteroids.

Including #1998OR2 , which was one of the last asteroids imaged by #TeamRadar with the #AreciboObservatory in 2020.

The National Academies report outlines a potential cause for the additional creep of the zinc at the #AreciboObservatory :

Induction during #TeamRadar transmissions producing current in the cables; which was conducted through the anchors and the towers to the ground, heating up the zinc just slightly in the process.

By itself, this would have been manageable. In combination with the damage from Hurricane Maria and other effects, it was eventually not.

Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

@PlanetTreky et al. 2024, "Radar Circular Polarization Ratio of Near-Earth Asteroids: Links to Spectral Taxonomy and Surface Processes" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad7df1

Here Ed Rivera-Valentín presents their update to Benner et al. 2008; using the full #TeamRadar near-Earth asteroid sample from the #AreciboObservatory to better understand relationships between asteroid compositions and radar scattering properties.

#DPS2024 and #TeamRadar continued:

@PlanetTreky et al., "On the Radar Detectability of Near-Earth Asteroid Surface Refreshing Processes" - https://submissions.mirasmart.com/DPS56/Itinerary/PresentationDetail.aspx?evdid=209

Zambrano-Marin et al., "Shape and Mutual Orbit Modeling of Binary Near-Earth Asteroid 2020 BX12" - https://submissions.mirasmart.com/DPS56/Itinerary/PresentationDetail.aspx?evdid=208

Naidu et al., "Orbital and physical characterization of asteroid Dimorphos following the DART impact" - https://submissions.mirasmart.com/DPS56/Itinerary/PresentationDetail.aspx?evdid=210

#DARTMission .

#DPS2024 and #TeamRadar :

Ferrais et al., "Investigation of existing and needed light curves of NEAs observed at Arecibo Observatory" - https://submissions.mirasmart.com/DPS56/Itinerary/PresentationDetail.aspx?evdid=267

Marshall et al., "Shape Models of Near-Earth Asteroids from Radar, Lightcurve, and Occultation Data" - https://submissions.mirasmart.com/DPS56/Itinerary/PresentationDetail.aspx?evdid=269

There is still a lot of science to be done with the #AreciboTelescope data archive.

@setiinstitute For anyone who is interested:

More #TeamRadar images of #2024ON and other asteroids observed during these couple of weeks are available at https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/sep2024.goldstone.planning.html .

This weekend, #TeamRadar started observing the asteroid #2024ON . It is also a contact binary: https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/sep2024.goldstone.planning.html .

Roughly one out of every six asteroids in this size range is a contact binary, so two flying by a few weeks apart is pretty common.

Presentations by #TeamRadar at #EPSC2024 :

Ferrais et al. on the binary asteroid #1994AW1 : https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2024/EPSC2024-161.html

Cannon et al. on the contact binary asteroid #2006DP14 : https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2024/EPSC2024-660.html

Today in AAS Research Notes:

de la Fuente Marcos & de la Fuente Marcos 2024, "A Two-month Mini-moon: 2024 PT5 Captured by Earth from September to November" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad781f

#2024PT5 will be temporarily bound to Earth's gravity between September 29 and November 25 (although we may argue about what "bound" means).

It has H = 27.6, so even at closest approach it will not be brighter than about 19th magnitude (and unless it spins quite slowly, #TeamRadar will not be able to detect it).

@setiinstitute For anyone wanting more details on the #TeamRadar observations of #2024MK:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-planetary-radar-tracks-two-large-asteroid-close-approaches
https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/june2024.goldstone.planning.html

Marin Ferrais, postdoc with #TeamRadar at UCF, described shape modeling of the binary near-Earth asteroid #1994AW1 using archival radar images at #SBAG today.

There is still quite a lot of new science to be done based on data from the #AreciboTelescope .

NASA management also promotes #TeamRadar at #SBAG , highlighting the #2011UL21 and #2024MK observations two weeks ago: https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/june2024.goldstone.planning.html

Thank you again, management.

I read that #Shapeways has shut down and filed for bankruptcy.

#TeamRadar had used their service to print out 3D models of asteroid shapes.

You can still find our catalogue of asteroid shape models in .obj format at https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/shapes/shapes.html , if you should have a printer of your own.

(Asteroids #Moshup and #Squannit are indexed under 1999 KW4 Alpha and Beta.)

I read that #Shapeways has shut down and filed for bankruptcy.

#TeamRadar had used their service to print out 3D models of asteroid shapes.

You can still find our catalogue of asteroid shape models in .obj format at https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/shapes/shapes.html , if you should have a printer of your own.

(Asteroids #Moshup and #Squannit are indexed under 1999 KW4 Alpha and Beta.)

I read that #Shapeways has shut down and filed for bankruptcy.

#TeamRadar had used their service to print out 3D models of asteroid shapes.

You can still find our catalogue of asteroid shape models in .obj format at https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/shapes/shapes.html , if you should have a printer of your own.

(Asteroids #Moshup and #Squannit are indexed under 1999 KW4 Alpha and Beta.)

I read that #Shapeways has shut down and filed for bankruptcy.

#TeamRadar had used their service to print out 3D models of asteroid shapes.

You can still find our catalogue of asteroid shape models in .obj format at https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/shapes/shapes.html , if you should have a printer of your own.

(Asteroids #Moshup and #Squannit are indexed under 1999 KW4 Alpha and Beta.)

I read that #Shapeways has shut down and filed for bankruptcy.

#TeamRadar had used their service to print out 3D models of asteroid shapes.

You can still find our catalogue of asteroid shape models in .obj format at https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/shapes/shapes.html , if you should have a printer of your own.

(Asteroids #Moshup and #Squannit are indexed under 1999 KW4 Alpha and Beta.)

More details about the #TeamRadar observations of asteroids #2024MK and #2011UL21 from #Goldstone and #Canberra as they flew past Earth this past week:

https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/near-earth-asteroid/nasas-planetary-radar-tracks-two-large-asteroid-close-approaches/

2011 UL21 turns out to have a small satellite orbiting it at something over 3 kilometers away.

And 2024 MK is really tumbling.

@setiinstitute