搜索近地小行星的一种射电天文方法

A Radio Astronomical Method of Searching Near-earth Asteroids

随着SL-9彗星撞击木星这一罕见天象得到观测证实,搜索近地小行星以及与之相当的彗星的任务日益受到重视。本文首先从冷暗天体的辐射趋向和望远镜的探测极限等方面指出了射电天文手段在完成此项任务中所具有的潜在优势。接着以65m多波段射电望远镜可能达到的技术指标为基础,论述了采用波束开关法检测强度约为1mJy的近地小行星射电辐射的可行性,以及通过对有关联测资料的分析,给出了确定小行星的方向、距离、速度和大小等参量的基本步骤。最后,讨论了在搜索小行星中所使用的技术方法,应用到其它天文目标的可能性。

Along with the rare event that the Comet SL-9 impact Jupiter was con-firmed by observations,the task of searching near-earth asteroids and relativecomets is obtaining more and more attention.Therefore,first of all,in view of theradiation tendency of cool and dark celestial bodies and detection limit of telescope,we point out the potential advantage of radio astronomical method for the task.Then,on the basis of predicted technical index of the 65m multi-waveband radiotelescope,we discuss the feasibility of using beam switching method to detect theradio radiation of near-earth asteroids which can be very weak down to about 1mJy.Also through the analysis of relative data of united observations,we intro-duce the basic steps of determining the direction,distance,velocity and size of theasteroids.Finally,we discuss the probability of the method as mentioned above tobe used for other astronomical objects.