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

Today's issue status: done

• News briefs – meteor news, comet news
  & Phoebe flyby
• Risk monitoring
  – NEODyS & JPL have removed 2004 LB

Cover: Confirmation imagery from Juan Lacruz of the newly discovered large PHO 2004 LJ1, made last night at La Canada Observatory in Spain (see news yesterday). North is up and east is left in this image stack, where stars appear as long streaks.

Meteor news:  TV New Zealand reported today that an apparently confirmed meteorite weighing 1.3 kg. dropped through the roof into the living room of an Auckland family at "around 9" this morning.

The Auckland Sunday Star Herald has a report dated tomorrow that explains that the 7x13cm chondrite hit a "leather couch and bounced back up to the ceiling," then rolled under a computer "at 9.30am." The owners have been told "to keep the rock in the oven at 100C to dry it out" until taking it to Auckland University Monday.

Although not likely to be related, this morning's fall in Auckland is only about 125 km. (map) northwest of Wairoa, where people were awakened about 54 hours earlier by a fireball exploding high overhead Thursday morning (see news yesterday).

Comet news:  Mike Mattiazzo in South Australia has posted images of C/2004 H6 (SWAN) from May 21st and 25th. He was one of three who independently reported discovering this comet in SOHO low

-resolution SWAN imagery, and he was one of three who helped to confirm its existence from the ground, which then resulted in two IAU Circulars on May 27th (see May 28th news). Today this comet appears for the first time in Minor Planet Electronic Circulars, with MPEC 2004-L42 carrying his June 7th observations from Brooklyn Park Observatory and May 27th observations from Vello Tabur at Wanniassa Observatory near Canberra, Australia.

Phoebe flyby:  In a news release today, JPL said that the first pictures from the Phoebe flyby "are expected later today." Two were posted here, with the closest shown at 77,441 km. (48, 130 miles). Closer are yet to come, promising to "show details about 10 times smaller."

Risk monitoring 12 June

The Saturday Daily Orbit Update MPEC has observation of 2004 LB from Great Shefford Observatory in England early today and now both NEODyS and JPL have removed all impact solutions for this object.