Asteroids were responsible for extinction events hundreds of millions of years ago on Earth, providing no shortage of doomsday film plots for Hollywood.
But researchers focused on asteroid tracking are on a mission to locate them for today’s real-world concerns: planetary defense.
The new and unexpected discovery tool applied in this research is NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was tapped for views of these asteroids from previous research and enabled by NVIDIA accelerated computing.
### Capturing Asteroid Images With Infrared JWST Driven by NVIDIA GPUs
Observatories typically look at the reflected light off asteroids to determine their size, which can be inaccurate. Using a telescope with infrared, like the JWST, can help track the thermal signals of asteroids for a more precise way at gauging their size.
### Harnessing GPUs to Save the Planet From Asteroids
The 2024YR4 near-Earth asteroid — estimated as wide as 300 feet and capable of destroying a city the size of New York — has a 2.3% chance of striking Earth.
Movies like Armageddon provide fictional solutions, like implanting a nuclear bomb, but it’s unclear how this could play out off screen.
The JWST technology will soon be the only telescope capable of tracking the space rock as it moves away from Earth before coming back.
### Asteroid Hunting: A Global Effort
The work was supported by the NVIDIA Academic Grant Program.
### Conclusion
The study’s findings mark a significant breakthrough in asteroid tracking, as researchers can now detect small asteroids in the main asteroid belt. The new method, which combines previous research, synthetic movement tracking, and infrared observations, will help identify and track asteroids likely to approach Earth, supporting asteroid defense efforts.
### FAQs
Q: What is the significance of the study’s findings?
A: The study’s findings mark a significant breakthrough in asteroid tracking, as researchers can now detect small asteroids in the main asteroid belt.
Q: How does the new method work?
A: The new method combines previous research, synthetic movement tracking, and infrared observations to help identify and track asteroids likely to approach Earth.
Q: What is the significance of the 2024YR4 asteroid?
A: The 2024YR4 near-Earth asteroid has a 2.3% chance of striking Earth and is estimated to be as wide as 300 feet, capable of destroying a city the size of New York.
Q: What is the role of NVIDIA in the study?
A: NVIDIA accelerated computing was used to enable the study’s findings, and the company’s GPU technology was key to unlocking the scientific achievement of detecting the small-asteroid population of the main belt.
