| Abbreviation | NEAT |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey |
| Successor | Near Earth Object Program |
| Formation | December 1995 (1995-12) |
| Founded at | Haleakalā Observatory,Maui, Hawaii |
| Dissolved | April 2007 (2007-04) |
| Type | Space observation program |
| Legal status | Disbanded |
| Purpose | To search for and map out near-earth asteroids |
Principal investigator | Raymond Bambery |
Co-investigator and project manager | Steven H. Pravdo |
Co-investigators | David L. Rabinowitz, Ken Lawrence and Michael Hicks |
Main organ | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
Parent organization | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Website | neat |
Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) was a program run byNASA and theJet Propulsion Laboratory,surveying the sky fornear-Earth objects. NEAT was conducted from December 1995 until April 2007, atGEODSS on Hawaii (Haleakala-NEAT;566), as well as atPalomar Observatory in California (Palomar-NEAT;644). With thediscovery of more than 40,000minor planets, NEAT has been one of the most successful programs in this field, comparable to theCatalina Sky Survey,LONEOS andMount Lemmon Survey.[1][2][3]
NEAT was the successor to thePalomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS).
| LINEAR NEAT Spacewatch LONEOS | CSS Pan-STARRS NEOWISE All others |
The original principal investigator wasEleanor F. Helin, with co-investigators Steven H. Pravdo andDavid L. Rabinowitz.[1]
NEAT had a cooperative agreement with theU.S. Air Force to use aGEODSS telescope located onHaleakala,Maui,Hawaii. GEODSS stands for Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance and these wide-field Air Force telescopes were designed to optically observe Earth orbital spacecraft. The NEAT team designed aCCD camera and computer system for the GEODSS telescope. The CCD camera format was 4,096 × 4,096pixels and the field of view was 1.2° × 1.6°.
Beginning in April 2001, theSamuel Oschin telescope (1.2-metre-aperture [3.9 ft] Schmidt telescope atPalomar Observatory) was also put into service to discover and track near-Earth objects. This telescope was equipped with a camera containing 112 CCDs each 2,400 × 600. This was the telescope that produced the images leading to the discovery of50000 Quaoar in 2002, and90377 Sedna in 2003 (published 2004) and thedwarf planetEris.
In addition to discovering thousands ofasteroids, NEAT was also credited with the co-discovery (recovery) of periodiccomet54P/de Vico–Swift–NEAT and of the high proper-motionTeegarden's Star. TheC/2001 Q4 (NEAT) comet was discovered on August 24, 2001 by NEAT.[4]
An asteroid was named in its honour,64070 NEAT, in early 2005.[5]
| seeList of minor planets § Main index |
1996 PW was discovered on 9 August 1996 by a NEAT automated search camera onHaleakalā, Hawaii.[6] It was the first object that was not an active comet discovered on an orbit typical of a long-period comets.[6] This raised the possibility it was anextinct comet or an unusual asteroid.[7]
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