Images Description
NEAT detects moving objects - asteroids and comets - by observing
the same part of the sky 3 times during an interval of about 1 hour.
The automatic data analysis system searches for moving objects by
comparing the 3 images.
A representation of the 3 images developed by Dr. David
Rabinowitz is shown below.
3103 Eger
The candidate object appears to move from the upper left to the
lower right. Each small panel is a 25 x 25 pixel sub-image extracted
from the 4096 x 4096 pixel raw images. The moving object is found
at 3 different positions during the 3 observation times. The top 3
panels are centered at position 1 during times 1-3. The moving
object is centered in panel 1 only. The middle 3 panels are centered
at position 2 during times 1-3. The moving object is centered in
panel 2 only. The bottom 3 panels are centered at position 3 during
times 1-3. The moving object is centered in panel 3 only. Notice
that fixed stars, if any, remain in the same relative position in all 3
horizontal panels.
To summarize, the moving objects can only appear in the center of
the panels in the upper left to lower right diagonal. All the other
panels are "anti-coincidence" tests. The object can not be centered
in any of them.
1996 TO5
The diagram to the right of the images depicts object motion, the
"+", in degrees per day, along the ecliptic longitude (horizontal
axis) and latitude (vertical axis) directions. The above object, 1996
TO5, is moving at -0.42 degrees per day, mostly in ecliptic latitude.
The polygon shows the boundaries for the expected motions of
main-belt asteroids. 1996 TO5 is a Near-Earth asteroid, an Earth-approaching Amor, consistent with the fact that its motion falls
outside the polygon. In some cases the polygon delineating the
main-belt motions will not be closed because the boundaries are not
known precisely. Eger was moving about 4 degrees/day in the
upper images and the main-belt motion was off the scale.
Some images shown in Previous Breaking Images are in the original
linear format developed by Jean Lorre and Dr. Steven Pravdo. An
example of this is shown below, with Eger again. In this format,
panels 1-3 correspond to the top 3, panels 4-6 to the middle 3, and
panels 7-9 to the bottom three, as described above.
Eger
The asteroid or comet will be found centered only in panels 1, 5,
and 9. Fixed stars (if any) will be seen in the same positions in
panels 1-3, 4-6, or 7-9.