6 June '04 Major News about Minor Objects

Sunday

6 June 2004

1:46pm MDT

2004-06-06 UTC 1946

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

Today's issue status: done

Small objects – report for 31 May – 6 June
Observation summary
News briefs
– Washington fireball & new EKBO mission

<Friday Tomorrow>
Report news >> here

Cover: Two small asteroids caught by Peter Birtwhistle at Great Shefford Observatory in England last month: 2004 KG1 (H=24.04) at left, and 2004 JV20 (H=23.72) Their absolute magnitudes (H) convert to roughly 50 and 60 meters/yards wide respectively.

2004 KG1 (left) details: 2004 May 21 2311-2324 UT. Mag +17.0 33x8 sec exposures (total exposure 4m24s). Motion 23"/min in p.a. 288°.
2004 JV20 (right) details: Confirmation imagery from 2004 May 15 2220-2234 UT. Mag +18.6. 40x6 sec exposures (total exposure 4m00s). Motion 28"/min in p.a. 223°.
Both: Binned 2x2 and enlarged x2. Original field 10'x10', N up. 0.30m f/6.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain + CCD. J95.

Small objects – panel 1/2

Major News for 6 June 2004

Small objects
Discovery & follow-up for 31 May–6 June

This past week, which had a full Moon at mid-week, saw just two near-Earth discoveries announced, an asteroid Monday and a comet Thursday. Although no "small" asteroids were announced, four were tracked by six observatories, and observation of one other was reported from mid-May.

2004 KF17 flew past Earth at 1.8 lunar distances on May 31st at 2110 UTC. No other known small asteroid flybys occurred during the week, and none are predicted for the month of June.

<< previous report | skip table | Small objects table >>

Notes: If an asteroid's orbit brings it to within 0.05 astronomical units (AU) of Earth's orbit, it is categorized as "potentially hazardous" unless it has an absolute magnitude H greater than 22.0, which corresponds to a diameter on the order of 135 meters/yards. Larger H means less bright, thus smaller size. And 0.05 AU is about 19.5 times the distance between Earth and Moon (0.00256 AU). To be discovered and tracked, such objects usually must come close. A few of them are Earth's nearest neighbors, coming closer than the Moon. They are exposed samplings of distant asteroid populations, and they have within their own population tomorrow's meteors. Diameter & Earth MOID: In the following observation summary table, the stated diameters are rough best estimates from a standard but very inexact H-to-size formula using H (absolute magnitude, or brightness) from the JPL NEO Orbital Elements page, source also for Earth MOID (minimum orbital intersection distance). Current Minor Planet Center H is also given, along with the original H from each object's discovery MPEC. Other sources: Planetary MOIDs are from Lowell Observatory. Priorities and visibilities are from the European Spaceguard Central Node (SCN). And flyby distances and times are from the JPL Close Approach Table.

Small objects – panel 2/2 (table)

Major News for 6 June 2004

Small object observation summary for 31 May–6 June

H = absolute magnitude (brightness), from which size is roughly estimated — m/yd = meters/yards — [cross index]
All objects had observations reported last week. Those on a light-blue background had observations from only before the week.

Object	Estimated diameter	JPL H	MPC H	Discovery H in MPEC	Earth MOID	European Spaceguard Central Node priority/visibility/campaign
2004 KG17 Amor	13 m/yd	27.00	27.1	27.0 2004-K75	0.01160 AU	Urgent, visibility ends 9 Jun.
2004 KG17 Amor	2004 KG17 was observed on 3 June by Tenagra II Observatory. It has an MOID of 0.030 AU with Mars.
2004 KF17 Apollo	27 m/yd	25.48	26.1	25.4 2004-K73	0.00459 AU
2004 KF17 Apollo	2004 KF17 was observed on 30 May by LINEAR and by Francisquito and Great Shefford observatories, and on 31 May by Farpoint Observatory. It passed Earth at 1.8 lunar distances on 31 May at 2110 UTC, and was predicted to go out of view June 4th.
2004 FP4 Amor	89 m/yd	22.89	23.2	23.3 2004-F47	0.05289 AU	Useful, visibility ends 22 Jul.
2004 FP4 Amor	2004 FP4 was observed on 30 May by the Australian Natl. Univ. (ANU) Observatory 1m telescope. It has an MOID of 0.009 AU with Mars.
2004 JP1 Apollo	100 m/yd	22.65	22.8	22.4 2004-J50	0.00563 AU
2004 JP1 Apollo	2004 JP1 was reported this past week as observed on 17 May by Pulkovo Obs. It was last reported seen May 18th (see report), and was predicted to go out of view May 28th.
2004 JB Amor	100 m/yd	22.64	22.5	22.7 2004-J30	0.19472 AU	Necessary, visibility ends 11 Jun.
2004 JB Amor	2004 JB was observed on 30 May by the ANU 1m telescope.

Small object observation cross index [table top]

Object	Observed by MPC code
2004 FP4	413
2004 JB	413
2004 JP1	084
2004 KF17	704, 734, G70 & J95
2004 KG17	291 & 926

Code	Observatory	Objects observed (days)
084	Pulkovo Obs.	2004 JP1
291	Spacewatch 1.8m telescope	2004 KG17
413	Australian Natl. Univ. (ANU) Obs. 1m telescope	2004 FP4 & 2004 JB
704	LINEAR	2004 KF17
734	Farpoint Obs.	2004 KF17
926	Tenagra II Obs.	2004 KG17
G70	Francisquito Obs.	2004 KF17
J95	Great Shefford Obs.	2004 KF17

News briefs – panel 1/1

Major News for 6 June 2004

News briefs

Washington fireball: The Dutch Meteor Society (DMS) has posted a 1.57Mb MP4 digital conversion of Ed Majden's all-sky camera VHS tape showing the spectacular Thursday morning fireball over western Washington state. (MP4 files can be viewed with free programs such as Quicktime 6+ and VLC.)

The video was shot looking into a dome mirror, with north to the right and east down. University of Washington seismologists report one large detonation high over Snohomish, which is about 160 miles (260 km.) southeast of Majden's observatory in Courtenay on Vancouver Island. His was the only all-sky camera in the region that was in service that morning.

See Marco Langbroek's DMS report and A/CC's news thread for more about this event.

New EKBO mission: SpaceRef.com posted yesterday an invitation to a workshop June 21st at the Forum on Outer Planetary Exploration in Pasadena to "provide ideas to maximize the science return from a close Uranus system fly-by using a New Horizons instruments payload." Emphasis added:

“ A New Horizons II mission is under study by the New Horizons 1 science team. It would launch on a JGA to explore multiple KBOs including a large analog to Pluto. If launched in 2008 or 2009 it could achieve a Uranus flyby on the way to the Kuiper Belt; the Uranus encounter would be in 2014-2015 (Early northern spring on Uranus; Voyager 2 saw the southern summer solstice). This mission could cost as little as $550M. ”

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