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The Asteroid/Comet Connection's Today's issue status: done
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| Small objects – panel 1/2 | Major News for 31 Oct. 2004 |
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Small objects A week with a full Moon is tough on observing minor objects, but it's a good time to do archive work. Josep Julia Gomez found six small asteroids (defined at right) in the SkyMorph archive, including a 2001 prediscovery and additional positions for other objects from that year and one in 2002. A total of four near-Earth asteroid discoveries were announced this past week, all on Tuesday, including a small one, 2004 UT1 discovered by LINEAR in New Mexico. And it made the week's only known close Earth flyby, passing at two lunar distances on Thursday. Nothing so close is predicted for the coming week. Four other small asteroids were reported observed, and ten observing facilities participated in the week's work. |
Whats so big about small objects? If an asteroids 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
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| Small objects – panel 2/2 (table) | Major News for 31 Oct. 2004 |
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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 UH1 K04U01H Aten | 8 m/yd | 28.17 | 28.1 | 28.1 2004-U29 | 0.001821 AU | |
| Six positions were reported for 2004 UH1 during 0507-0518 UT on 24 Oct. by Powell Obs., a dozen hours ahead of passing Earth at 0.8 lunar distances (LD) at 1731 UT. Powell was the only observatory to catch this object after the discovery MPEC was issued the day before (see report). The MPC ranks that as the sixth closest flyby this year and sixteenth closest ever observed by telescope. This object has an MOID of 0.035 AU with Venus. | ||||||
| 2004 UT1 K04U01T Aten | 18 m/yd | 26.43 | 26.6 | 26.6 2004-U45 | 0.004722 AU | |
| NEW: 2004 UT1 was discovered on 23 Oct. by LINEAR, was confirmed on 24 Oct. by LINEAR and Great Shefford Obs., on 25 Oct. by LINEAR, Farpoint Obs., and Great Shefford Obs., and on 26 Oct. by Sabino Canyon Obs. and by Robert Hutsebaut using a Rent-A-Scope telescope at New Mexico Skies (see cover image and report). It was announced in MPEC 2004-U45 of 26 Oct. and was further observed on 26 Oct. by Hutsebaut via NM Skies and by Great Shefford Obs. It passed Earth at 2.0 LD at 1640 UT on 28 Oct. | ||||||
| 2001 TY1 K01T01Y Apollo | 33 m/yd | 25.08 | 24.8 | 24.6 2001-T46 | 0.002248 AU | |
| 2001 TY1 was reported this past week as observed on 6 Oct. 2001 with NEAT's Mt. Palomar telescope. This was found in the SkyMorph archive by Josep Julia Gomez and added 3.057 days to what had been a 37.124-day arc that had observations 9-24 Oct. and 15 Nov. See one of the frames and a report. | ||||||
| 2004 SU55 K04S55U Amor | 47 m/yd | 24.31 | 24.4 | 24.3 2004-S60 | 0.050383 AU | |
| 2004 SU55 was observed on 24 Oct. by Desert Moon Obs., adding 15.055 days to what had been a 17.016-day observing arc. This object has an MOID of 0.046 AU with Mars and, before it was removed from the SCN Priority List after 25 Oct., it was noted as going out of view on 19 Dec. | ||||||
| 2001 WJ15 K01W15J Apollo | 70 m/yd | 23.42 | 23.6 | 23.3 2001-W62 | 0.006932 AU | |
| Three positions for 2001 WJ15 were reported this past week from NEAT's Haleakala telescope on 25 Nov. 2001, found in the archive by Gomez, within but adding to the existing 21-position, 28.060-day observation arc. | ||||||
| 2001 TE45 K01T45E Apollo | 76 m/yd | 23.25 | 23.3 | 23.3 2001-U13 | 0.096849 AU | |
| 2001 TE45 was reported this past week as observed on 17 Oct. 2001 by NEAT/Palomar, found by Gomez in the archive, within the existing 5.851-day observing arc. | ||||||
| 2004 TO20 K04T20O Apollo | 82 m/yd | 23.08 | 23.3 | 23.6 2004-U05 | 0.083395 AU | |
| 2004 TO20 was observed on 23 Oct. by UKAPP with the Faulkes Telescope North (DOU of the 26th) and on 24 Oct. by Jornada Obs. (DOU of the 25th). This added 6.881 days to what had been a 2.066-day observation arc. This object has an MOID of 0.036 AU with Mars and, before it was removed from the SCN Priority List after the 25th, it was noted as going out of view on 18 Nov. | ||||||
| 2004 UR K04U00R Apollo | 103 m/yd | 22.59 | 22.9 | 22.6 2004-U22 | 0.012205 AU | |
| 2004 UR was observed on 29 Oct. by Begues Obs., adding 6.682 days to what had been a 15.956-day observation arc. This object has an MOID of 0.001 AU with Mars and will pass Earth at 5.4 LD at 2322 UT on 8 Nov. 2004 UR was on the SCN Priority List for one day, on 25 Oct. (as level-1 Urgent), when it was noted as going out of view on 13 Nov. | ||||||
| 2001 WO15 K01W15O Apollo | 103 m/yd | 22.59 | 22.6 | 22.4 2001-W67 | 0.009721 AU | |
| 2001 WO15 was reported this past week as observed on 25 Nov. 2001 by NEAT/Haleakala and on 20 Dec. 2001 by NEAT/Palomar. Gomez measured five and four positions respectively in the archive, all within the existing 45.793-day observing arc. | ||||||
| 2002 BF25 K02B25F Apollo | 119 m/yd | 22.27 | 22.4 | 22.4 2002-B40 | 0.019472 AU | |
| 2002 BF25 was reported this past week as observed on 17 Feb. 2002 by NEAT/Palomar, found by Gomez in the archive, within the existing 44.879-day observing arc. | ||||||
| 2001 XX4 K01X04X Apollo | 133 m/yd | 22.03 | 22.1 | 21.3 2001-X44 | 0.011295 AU | |
| 2001 XX4 was reported this past week as observed on 16 Dec. 2001 by NEAT/Palomar, within an observing arc that spanned 11 Dec. to 8 Jan. 2002 This object, which was also observed a year later, during 21 Dec. to 3 Jan. 2003, has an MOID of 0.010 AU with Venus. | ||||||
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