Eleanor F. Helin

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Eleanor F. “Glo” Helin (1932–2009) was active in planetary science and astronomy for more than 40 years at the California Institute of Technology and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In the early 1970s, she initiated the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS) from Palomar Observatory, searching for large near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). This photographic program concluded after 25 years when the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) project began in 1995. She remained with NEAT until her retirement in 2002, utilizing Air Force telescopes on Ha-leakala Observatory, Maui, Hawaii, and expanding NEAT to include an upgraded Palomar 48-inch (1.2-meter) Oschin Schmidt telescope.

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This image was created from a composite of two images which were taken 914 seconds and 932 seconds after the recent Deep Space 1 (DS1) encounter with the asteroid 9969 Braille by the Minature Integrated Camera Spectrometer (MICAS). Interpolated values were then computed for each pixel in the final image based on the neighboring pixels of the composite. The interpolation minimizes the spatial frequency artifacts of the final image. The Sun is illuminating Braille from below.

Braille (also known as 1992 KD) was discovered on May 27, 1992 by astronomers Eleanor Helin and Kenneth Lawrence using the 46 centimeter (18 inch) Shmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory, while scanning the skies as part of the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey.

Deep Space 1 was launched into orbit around the Sun on October 24, 1998 at 5:08 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida on a Delta 7326, a variant of the Delta II rocket. An ion engine, operating for more than 1800 hours, was used to maneuver the spacecraft for an encounter with Braille. The closest approach of DS1 to the asteroid, at an approximate distance of 15 kilometers, occurred on July 29,1999 at 04:45 Universal Time, July 28 at 9:46 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.