The Asteroid/Comet Connection's
daily news journal about
asteroids, comets, and meteors

Today's issue status: done

• News briefs – comet & precovery news
• Risk monitoring

Cover: With the bright light of the full Moon bouncing around in his telescope optics, Pepe Manteca last night in Spain caught the comet most recently discovered, P/2004 F3 (NEAT) (see news), and sent this image and animation. The image is a stack of the frames centered on the comet's motion, so the stars appear slightly elongated. See his and Rafael Ferrando's Cometas Web site for many more comet images and animations.

Comet news:  Astronomy.com tells today that Jacques Crovisier et al. found "ethylene glycol in archived radio spectra" of comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp). This molecule, "the chemically reduced form of the simplest sugar (glycolaldehyde)," is "the most complex chemical species ever identified in a comet by means of spectroscopy." It has also been found in some meteors and interstellar clouds, and so "strengthens the connection between cometary and interstellar material," but is more commonly known for its use in automobile antifreeze.

The European Space Agency has a news release today, "SOHO sees its 750th comet." See A/CC March 24th news for a little more about that.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has an article today, "Scientist from UH helps NASA get photos of 'Wild 2,'" about David Tholen using a 10m Keck telescope to observe 81P/Wild 2 during 18-20 December to help Stardust's January flyby navigation (see Index).

Precovery news:  MPEC 2004-G11 today reports that Felix Hormuth has located 2004 BU58 in images from NEAT's Haleakala telescope from 30 December 2000 and 3 January 2001. This object, estimated to be on the order of a half kilometer (500 yards) wide, was discovered January 23rd by LINEAR in New Mexico, and was listed by NEODyS with impact solutions from the 25th to 29th of that month.

Risk monitoring 6 April

As can be expected during the time of the full Moon, there is no news to report today about tracking objects that have impact solutions. (Note: The Minor Planet Center didn't issue a Daily Orbit Update MPEC on this day.)