Once considered space “junk,” asteroids are gaining renewed interest among astronomers

Vishnu Reddy Kanupuru, a graduate student in space studies, is an asteroid hunter and a successful one.  He has discovered 23 of them so far, including most recently a rare binary near-earth asteroid christened “2005ABr.”

Asteroids are minor planets ranging in size from a circumference of a mile to nearly 500 miles.  Most orbit between the planets of Mars and Jupiter.  Kanupuru used a 26-inch online telescope in South Dakota owned by his collaborator, also an amateur, Ron Dyvig.  Their discovery was confirmed by astronomers in the Czech Republic. 

Modest resources need not be an obsticle to makeing significant discoveries in astronomy, notes Vishnu Reddy Kanuparu.

“It’s perhaps the first time someone with a very small telescope on a shoestring budget has made such a discovery,” Kanupuru said.  Preliminary results of their find were published in the International Astronomical Union circular to alert astronomers around the world.

Kanupuru studies changes in the brightness of asteroids to estimate how fast they rotate, which can yield all kinds of information, including the asteroid’s unique identification.

Before 1994, asteroids were considered the “junk” of the universe and their study was considered menial, Kanupuru said.  Only about 10,000 asteroids were known.  Then Comet Shoemaker-Levy9 was pulled out of its orbit by Jupiter and broke into 21 fragments that collided spectacularly with that planet.  Gigantic explosions resulted, one of which was bigger than the Earth.  That celestial event in turn triggered an explosion of interest in asteroids among astronomers.

Digital photography and the Internet have increased knowledge astronomically, Kanupuru said.  Now there are about 200,000 known asteroids and more are being discovered every day.

Kanupuru has been interested in astronomy since childhood, but took degrees in visual communication and journalism to pursue a career in film and journalism in India.  But he also dabbled in asteroid research, and eventually ended up as a graduate student in UND’s Department of Space Studies.  Two of the faculty members there, Drs. Paul Hardersen and Mike Gaffey, are among the handful of scientists studying the physical composition of asteroids.

“You often don’t get to work with the best people in the world who are also nice to you,” Kanupuru said.