The Theia hypothesis goes STEREO

William Atkins
Friday, 10 April 2009 19:35

Science - Space

Kaiser adds, "The search actually began last month when both spacecraft rolled 180 degrees so that they could take a series of 2-hour exposures of the general L4/L5 areas. In the first sets of images, amateur astronomers found some known asteroids and new comet Itagaki was imaged just a couple of days after the announcement of its discovery. No Theiasteroids however."

Although the prime directive of STEREO is not to hunt for Theiasteroids, it is at an advantageous spot and NASA is going to take advantage of it.

Kaiser states, "STEREO is a solar observatory. The two probes are flanking the sun on opposite sides to gain a 3D view of solar activity. We just happen to be passing through the L4 and L5 Lagrange points en route. This is purely bonus science."

As a solar observatory, STEREO consists of two nearly identical spacecraft that were launched on October 25, 2006. One is in front of Earth’s orbit and the other is behind Earth in its orbit.

Working in unison, the twin probes are able to stereoscopically image the Sun and its solar phenomena such as coronal mass ejections, solar flares, and such.

Kaiser continues, "We might not see anything, but if we discover lots of asteroids around L4 or L5, it could lead to a mission to analyze the composition of these asteroids in detail. If that mission discovers the asteroids have the same composition as the Earth and Moon, it will support Belbruno and Gott's version of the giant impact theory."

NASA also is looking for amateur protoplanet observers. It states, “The STEREO team is inviting the public to participate in the search by scrutinizing photos as they come in from the spacecraft. If you see a dot of light moving with respect to the stars, you may have found a Theiasteroid.”

Go to sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil for information on how to participate.

For additional information on J. Richard Gott, go to: “Time Travel.”

For more information on Ed Belbruno, visit “Fly Me to the Moon: A Conversation with Mathematician and Artist Ed Belbruno.”

For more specific information on the hypothesis, go to: "Origin of the Earth and Moon," by G. Jeffrey Taylor.