| Monday | 5 July 2004 | 5:46pm MDT | 2004-07-05 UTC 2346 |
|
The Asteroid/Comet Connection's Today's issue status: done, updated
Cover: June 13th was a lucky day for Rob Matson (Index), when he found six meteorites, some of which are likely to be associated. The one pictured is the largest, at around 320 grams and 6.5cm across on its long axis. About two thirds of it was underground. The finds were at a California location that is undisclosed while under active study. |
| News briefs – panel 1/2 | Major News for 5 July 2004 |
|
|
News briefs
Unusual object: MPEC 2004-N22 today published the December 24th and January 6th observations of 2003 EH1 by Emmanuel Jehin and Malvina Billeres with the ESO 3.5m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla in Chile. The MPEC includes a comment from Brian Marsden that “The recovery observations are still insufficient to shed much light on the suggested identity with comet C/1490 Y1.” Imagery from the December observations was posted last December by Peter Jenniskens and was used for A/CC's “cover” June 19th. Comet news: Peter Birtwhistle has posted a very interesting page with comet C/2004 K3 (LINEAR) observations and comments, in which he notes that Syuichi Nakano on July 3rd published (by E-mail to comet observers) an orbit calculation for this near-Mars comet that has a closed path. (JPL is also showing an elliptical orbit, as is the Minor Planet Center.) |
2003 UR292by Pasquale Tricarico A/CC reported yesterday that precovery observations found for 2003 UR292 have yielded an orbit that encounters Neptune, and we asked Pasquale Tricarico, who has studied the stability of Trojan swarms, for an analysis of UR292's orbital stability.–Ed. As Brian Marsden says in MPEC 2004-N19, it is better to talk of “likelihood” instead of real events. That said, I've integrated the nominal orbit of 2003 UR292 as given by the MPC, from now to the year 9000+. The minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) with Neptune, which now is about 0.293 AU, has a complex behavior, with values typically between 0.1 and 0.2 AU, but sometimes as low as 0.05 AU. The first real close approach with Neptune should happen around the year 5140 at about 0.55 AU, followed by a closer one in the year 5877 at about 0.36 AU. The effect of the close approaches is to change the semimajor axis of 2003 UR292 from about 32 AU now to about 28 AU after the year 6000, with a decreasing trend. The eccentricity is quite stable, between 0.16 and 0.18, and the inclination changes from 2.7 to about 5 degrees. |
| News briefs – panel 2/2 | Major News for 5 July 2004 |
|
|
Readings: The Space Review has a piece today, “Giant bombs on giant rockets: Project Icarus,” about a 1967 MIT graduate student project to devise a strategy using Apollo-era technology and heavy-lifting Saturn rockets to deliver nuclear weapons to a threatening asteroid to divert its path. ESA has an item today about Gaia, to be launched in 2010 for a five year mission to create the “ultimate” star catalog, one that will include 3D position and motion by repeatedly measuring everything down to magnitude V=20 using two astrometric telescopes with rectangular 1.4x0.5m mirrors. Gaia will reside at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrangian point beyond the Moon, and will have Earth as a Sun shield. From this vantage point it will also search for asteroids inside Earth's orbit and survey distant minor objects. To learn about progress in mission preparations, see Gaia news. The Fort Wayne, India Journal Gazette has a nice piece from yesterday from the Los Angeles Times about the very pleasantly located observatory of science writer Timothy Ferris (Seeing in the Dark). |
Mt. Graham fires: News sites around the world are carrying an Associated Press wire story with headlines such as “Wildfire threatens powerful telescope” at CNN today, which includes an alarming photograph with the caption, “Smoke and flames draw near to the Large Binocular Telescope atop Mt. Graham on Saturday,” and tells that Mt. Graham International Observatory (MGIO, Index) was evacuated Friday. Local news coverage is more upbeat, such as at the Tucson Arizona Daily Star today, “Update: Mt. Graham telescopes, cabins safe for now.” See also an Arizona Republic story today, “Praying his project won’t burn,” and a Tucson Citizen report today. The Mt. Graham International observatory has a surrounding cleared “defensible space,” its own sprinkler system for a final defense, and a place for remaining staff to retreat if the grounds are overrun by fire. One mirror of the LBTO is installed and the second is not yet on the mountain (Index). |
| Risk monitoring - panel 1/1 | Major News for 5 July 2004 |
|
|
Risk monitoring
 5 July  The Monday Daily Orbit Update MPEC has no observations of objects with impact solutions, but the Minor Planet Center Last Observation page is showing that Goodricke-Pigott Observatory in Arizona, which discovered 2004 MP7, picked it up again this morning. |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
