Using the PANOPTES Network to
Discover and Analyze Asteroids, Comets, and NEO’s
Pema Choden, Karma Zam, Tandin Tobgay, Tashi Cheodren,
Tsheyang Palki Tshewang, Shyine Kundareaka, Tsheltrim Lhamo, J. A. Wise,
The Discovery
Fig. 2: Picture taken on 14th November with our PAN 026 unit. Arrows mark one of two streaks we observed in successive images.
PAN026 and PAN018
Fig. 1: Researchers at the Druk Observatory have constructed two PANOPTES units for detecting exoplanet transients. The first, PAN018 was the 18th PANOPTES unit built in the world. It was built in 2019. The unit in the foreground was built in May 2023 and is PAN026. The Observatory operates these two units as a part of the PANOPTES global network.
Observations
We started analyzing the first streak by making observations. Clearly it was moving with respect to the stars. We suspected an asteroid, satellite, or a near Earth object (NEO). To help with our observations, we uploaded one of our images to Astrometric.net to use their plate solving feature to find the location of our images. We had a good idea, but as one can see in the image, Astrometric.net used digitized star maps to pinpoint the part of the sky we were viewing.
Fig 3: We were imaging a portion of the Orion Constellation.
Fig. 4: We used Stellarium, an app-based observatory that allowed us to set a date and move forward and backward in time. It has many of the satellites in its data base so we could look for the presence of any known satellite. We did identify a Russian Satellite in the field of view on the night and time of our images. The question was does the speed and location match?
Analysis
Setting the equation for centripetal force equal to the equation for the force of gravity we have:
Equation 1: Gm1m2/R2 = m2v2/R
Taking 30.2 arc-sec/sec and solving for “R” the orbital radius, we find that R3=Gm1/4x10-8 and that “R” should be 5000 km.
Fig 5: To determine the speed, we utilized SAO Ds9 by drawing a circle and finding the radius in degrees. Because we are not sure of the distance from Earth, we can only describe any speed in terms of arc-sec of a degree/sec. Our speed turned out to be approximate 35 arc-sec/sec
Conclusions
The two streaks appear to be geosynchronous and mid-Earth satellites. Our work provides evidence that the PANOPTES network can be utilized to detect and analyze asteroids, commits and NEO’s.
For questions: joewise@academy.bt
Acknowledgements
The Royal Academy, Druk Gyalpo’s Institute (DGI), Bhutan
Breakthrough Initiatives, USA
University of Arizona, USA
PANOPTES