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Contents  on 7 June '07

• Minor-Object News -- four items
• Minor-Object Science -- none today
• IAU Minor Planet Center
  • NEOCP Activity -- one listing: 1 updated
  • New MPECs -- five MPECs
  • Observers -- thirteen observing facilities
• Impact Risk Monitoring -- one object reported
• Chronology

WELCOME to A/CC's prototype daily news publication designed to be the viewing end of a planned autonomous 24-hour news service. The new tools and this publication format are working well enough now to share with readers. It is expected that this approach will require less time to maintain than our previous news and small asteroid pages, which were retired on May 14th. There's still more development ahead and there probably will be some glitches along the way, but this is what's needed to keep up with the increasing pace of minor-object news. The CRT page will be maintained separately for a little while longer, until all of this is working smoothly. And the CRT and small-asteroid ephemerides will be kept going.

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Minor-Object News  on 7 June '07

• "Dawn ELV Status Report," NASA KSC 7 June - Quote: "A mechanical problem with the crane used to hoist and mate the first set of three boosters stalled further launch vehicle build-up. As a result ... the launch of Dawn has been retargeted for July 7. Repairs to the crane are now complete. The operations to attach the solid rocket boosters resumed today... [The] loading of xenon for the ion propulsion system ... began Tuesday night and is under way today. Hydrazine, used for spacecraft control and maneuvering, is scheduled to be loaded on June 10. The spacecraft will be transported to Pad 17-B for mating to the Delta II on June 26." - Note: NASA's Dawn mission Web sites have changed to state that "Launch will not occur before July 7, 2007. Launch window opens at 4:09:31 PM EDT."
• NEO tracking: With no new discoveries posted since May 28th and having gone empty on the 31st, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation (NEOCP) began to come alive again yesterday. The only object posted yesterday (there have been more since) was announced today (2007 LA, see below) and has now been listed as an impact risk (see below).
        Following last week's full Moon, general NEO follow-up observing also is coming back up. The DOU MPEC yesterday published observations of five small asteroids from Antares Observatory in Illinois from the morning before, including formerly risk-rated 2007 KV2 which has gone out of view for most NEO observers. This work by Antares added eleven to twelve days to observing arcs that had been four to fourteen days long.
• Bits & pieces: Space.com reported yesterday that two cosmonauts, while on a spacewalk to add panels to the International Space Station Wednesday to help protect against impacts from space debris, happened to notice an example of why the shielding is needed -- "a [5-6mm] dent or a hole from a meteorite."
        Arecibo has revised its asteroid radar schedule to add seven more targets for a total of ten from January to September 2008. Optical astrometry is needed for five of these, especially 2002 TD66, and physical observations (lightcurves, colors, spectroscopy, and infrared radiometry) are requested for all of them.
• "Asteroid expert won't fret about getting hit," The Record 7 June - Quote: "The 1908 Tunguska River asteroid ... scorched and toppled trees in an area stretching at least 20 kilometres away from the blast site. Superimpose that degree of damage over a densely-populated city and one can see why even the smaller space objects can't be dismissed."

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Minor-Object Science  on 7 June '07

No science papers were available or prepared today.

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NEOCP Activity  on 7 June '07

The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 1 listing: 1 updated

When last checked at 2355 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had one updated listing. Of these, none were "one nighters." Major News counted a total of three objects listed on the NEOCP at some point on this day.

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New MPECs  on 7 June '07

Minor Planet Electronic Circulars

There were five MPECs issued this day from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• MPEC 2007-L18 time-stamped "06:07 UT" - Daily Orbit Update - see below
• MPEC 2007-L19 time-stamped "11:42 UT" - 2007 LA - see below
• MPEC 2007-L20 time-stamped "23:29 UT" - 2007 LF - see below
• MPEC 2007-L21 time-stamped "23:36 UT" - 2007 LE - see below
• MPEC 2007-L22 time-stamped "23:53 UT" - 2007 LD

MPEC 2007-L22 - "23:53 UT" - 2007 LD

• K07L00D   2007 LD (H=19.4 ~446m) was discovered at 0358 UT 07 June by LINEAR, which observed it at June 7.17-21p5. The discovery was confirmed by Alter Satzberg Obs. (June 7.89-90p4).

MPEC 2007-L21 - "23:36 UT" - 2007 LE

• K07L00E   2007 LE (H=19.2 ~490m) was discovered at 0400 UT 07 June by LINEAR, which observed it at June 7.17-21p5. The discovery was confirmed by the SZTE Asteroid Program (SZTE) (June 7.85p6), Herrenberg Obs. (June 7.85-86p3), Alter Satzberg Obs. (June 7.92-94p6), and San Marcello Pistoiese Obs. (June 7.93-94p4).

MPEC 2007-L20 - "23:29 UT" - 2007 LF

• K07L00F   2007 LF (Earth MOID=1.4 LD, H=20.3 ~295m) was discovered at 0516 UT 07 June by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), which observed it at June 7.22-27p8 and 7.32p4. The discovery was confirmed by LINEAR (June 7.21-25p5), San Marcello Pistoiese Obs. (June 7.86p3), SZTE (June 7.87p6), Herrenberg Obs. (June 7.91-92p5), and Alter Satzberg Obs. (June 7.96-97p4).

MPEC 2007-L19 - "11:42 UT" - 2007 LA

• K07L00A   2007 LA (risk-listed, H=21.4 ~178m) was discovered at 0539 UT 06 June by CSS, which observed it at June 6.24-26p4 and 7.35-38p12.

<< DOU on 7 June '07 >>  MPEC 2007-L18 - "06:07 UT" - Daily Orbit Update

• Observations of almost-small asteroids (21.7<H<=22.0)
• K04K17H   2004 KH17 (q=0.357 AU, arc=2 opp, H=22.0 ~135m) from Powell Obs. (June 6.17p4)
• Observations of other objects
• K07J40E   2007 JE40 (arc=22 days, H=20.1 ~323m) from Astronomical Research Obs. (ARO) (June 6.18-19p4)
• K07J35J   2007 JJ35 (i=56.1°, arc=23 days, H=18.5 ~676m) from Petit Jean Mtn. South Obs. (PJMSO) (June 6.21p6)
• K07H00Z   2007 HZ (arc=49 days, H=20.4 ~282m) from ARO (June 6.12-14p3)
• K07F42V   2007 FV42 (arc=78 days, H=17.9 ~891m) from Linceo Obs. (June 5.99-01p2), Greiner Research Obs. (June 6.34-36p10), and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (June 6.61-63p14)
• K07D83B   2007 DB83 (arc=3 opp, H=18.3 ~741m) from PJMSO (June 6.19-20p4)
• K07D40Z   2007 DZ40 (Q=4.841 AU, arc=104 days, H=18.6 ~645m) from Greiner Research Obs. (June 6.32-33p7)
• K07D08F   2007 DF8 (arc=105 days, H=20.3 ~295m) from Greiner Research Obs. (June 6.39p3)
• K06Y02Y   2006 YY2 (arc=166 days, H=17.9 ~891m) from ARO (June 6.10-11p4) and PJMSO (June 6.16-17p6)
• K06WC9E   2006 WE129 (i=39.5°, arc=191 days, H=19.7 ~389m) from PJMSO (June 6.21-22p8)
• K05A13D   2005 AD13 (arc=2 opp, H=17.9 ~891m) from Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (June 6.55-59p9) and Szamotuly-Galowo Obs. (June 6.89-90p5)
• K03E50B   2003 EB50 (arc=5 opp, H=16.6 ~1.62 km) from PJMSO (June 6.18-19p5)
• K02K04F   2002 KF4 (i=37.2°, Q=4.571 AU, arc=3 opp, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from PJMSO (June 6.25p5), CSS (June 6.27-30p4), and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (June 6.49-50p10)
• K00K43X   2000 KX43 (arc=3 opp, H=19.2 ~490m) from Powell Obs. (June 6.22-23p5)
• K00K00B   2000 KB (i=56.0°, Q=4.205 AU, arc=5 opp, H=16.2 ~1.95 km) from PJMSO (June 6.23-24p4)
• K00EA6V   2000 EV106 (arc=4 opp, H=19.1 ~513m) from ARO (June 6.26-29p2 at V=22.5-6)
• J98U01L   1998 UL1 (i=42.0°, arc=5 opp, H=16.6 ~1.62 km) from PJMSO (June 6.13-14p5) and CSS (June 6.15-16p4)
• F4007   154007 2002 BY from PJMSO (June 6.15p5)
• E5656   145656 4788 P-L from CSS (June 6.18-20p4), PJMSO (June 6.22-23p5), and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (June 6.51-53p8)
• D8883   138883 2000 YL29 from PJMSO (June 6.14-15p5)
• D6874   136874 1998 FH74 from Szamotuly-Galowo Obs. (June 6.90-91p5)
• 86829   86829 2000 GR146 from PJMSO (June 6.25-26p5)
• 85275   85275 1994 LY from Szamotuly-Galowo Obs. (June 6.89p5)
• 02101   2101 Adonis (1936 CA) from Powell Obs. (June 6.24-25p3)
• 01685   1685 Toro (1948 OA) from Powell Obs. (June 6.27p3)

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Observers  on 7 June '07

Thirteen observing facilities appeared in this day's MPECs.

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Impact Risk Monitoring  on 7 June '07

Legend: VI# = VI count, Prob Cum = cumulative probability, PS Cum/Max = cumulative/maximum Palermo Scale, TS = Torino Scale

For a list of all risk-rated objects recently in view, see our ephemerides page.

An impact solution, also known as a "virtual impactor" (VI), is not a prediction but rather a possibility derived from an orbit calculation that cannot be eliminated yet based on the existing data. Elimination can come quickly with just a little further observation or may take weeks or months, sometimes years. Once superceded or eliminated, a former impact solution has zero relevance to an object's risk. See Jon Giorgini's "Understanding Risk Pages" for more about all this.

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Chronology  on 7 June '07

Times are UTC for when the items were noted by Major News.