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

Today's issue status: done

• News briefs – meteor news, FMOP discovery + bits & pieces
• Risk monitoring – JPL has removed 2004 LB6

Cover: The newest comet discovery, C/2004 L1 (LINEAR), sneaks through a crowded starfield in this confirmation imagery by Rafael Ferrando at Pla D'Arguines Observatory in Spain from the night of June 13th, seen here as five frames of 60 seconds exposure each. North is up and east is left. See news yesterday about the discovery

Meteor news:  The hoopla over Saturday morning's Auckland meteorite fall is bringing out news of older, and as yet unconfirmed, New Zealand meteorite finds. Yesterday it was a report of a 1980 find. Now the Otago Daily Times reports another today, “a misshapen, hollow object” that was “found when digging a long-drop toilet [outhouse] in East Roxburgh in the mid-1950s.” The New Zealand Herald also has a brief item about this today.

FMOP discovery:  The object with temporary designation SW40Dv noted yesterday was announced today in MPEC 2004-L66 as 2004 LA10 after six observatories made confirmation overnight. It is a small asteroid, estimated at roughly 40 meters/yards wide (H=24.7), that will pass Earth on June 24th at 13.6 lunar distances.

Bits & pieces:  Space.com has articles today about the Phoebe flyby and about Canadian robotics, telling that “NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center intends to issue a sole source Request for Proposal (RFP) to MD Robotics” for servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.

Risk monitoring 15 June

The Tuesday Daily Orbit Update MPEC (DOU) carries observations of 2004 LB6 and 2004 LV3 from yesterday morning. 2004 LB6 was observed from LINEAR in New Mexico, Sabino Canyon Observatory in Arizona, and Francisquito Observatory in southern California. And today JPL removed its impact solutions for this object.

The 2004 LV3 observations came from LINEAR and Tenagra II Observatory in Arizona. Today NEODyS and JPL cut their impact solution counts by more than a third and slightly raised their overall risk ratings for this object, and JPL is again showing a December 2008 solution.