Observing Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) Using Telescopes Located in South Africa

In this webinar, Dr. Nicolas Erasmus, Instrumentation Scientist and Astronomer will discuss the follow-up characterisation of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) using telescopes located in Sutherland, South Africa. He will mainly focus on the DART and IAWN campaigns he's been involved in, where our telescopes equipped with Andor cameras were used to observe the DART spacecraft's impact with the Didymos system, and the planetary defence exercise on asteroids Apophis and 2023 DZ2. Dr. Nicolas Erasmus will also show how they have developed a system that is capable of performing complete autonomous observation of asteroids, a requirement for rapid same-night follow-up campaigns of newly discovered and potentially dangerous NEAs.

Dr. Nicolas Erasmus is employed as an Instrumentation Scientist and Astronomer at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) where his research is in Solar System Science, specifically main-belt and near-Earth asteroids. Nicolas is also involved in astronomical instrumentation development and commissioning for various telescopes and instruments operated by the SAAO in Sutherland. Recently a new asteroid hunting telescope (ATLAS) designed and operated by the University of Hawaii and funded by NASA has been installed in Sutherland, for which Nicolas is the South African lead.