What can my observations tell us about NEOs?

Participants in Target Asteroids! and Target NEOs! can produce three different types of data:

•  Photometry
  • Photometry is the measurement of the brightness of an asteroid
    relative to standard reference stars. When photometric observations are taken over time, astronomers are able to
    measure an asteroid’s rotation (or spin) rate, get a rough idea of its shape, derive its color, and by measuring
    how an object changes brightness at different phase angles (the Sun-asteroid-observer angle) even estimate its albedo or
    amount of light being reflected back at us.
• Astrometry
  • Astrometry is the measurement of an asteroid’s position relative to the
    background stars. When an observer’s astrometry is combined with the astrometry of other observers the orbit of the
    asteroid can be computed. Knowing the orbit is required for predicting the motion of an asteroid into the future.
    These not only allow the object to be studied in the future but may even help determine its probability of impacting
    the Earth.
• Spectroscopy.
  • Spectroscopy is the measurement of the amount of light being reflected by the surface of an asteroid at
    different wavelengths. Similar but better than filter photometry, spectroscopy can tell us the color and taxonomic
    type of an asteroid and, in some cases, reveal minerals on the surface of an object.