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The Dawn asteroid-mission spacecraft being guided down to mate onto its upper-stage booster rocket at Astrotech. From an image released by Kennedy Space Center on June 21st, credit: NASA.

Contents  on 26 June '07

• Minor-Object News -- four items
• Minor-Object Science -- six papers
• IAU Minor Planet Center
  • NEOCP Activity -- six listings: 1 new, 5 updated
  • New MPECs -- four MPECs
  • Observers -- 20 observing facilities
• Impact Risk Monitoring -- two objects 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 26 June '07

• "Crater Could Solve 1908 Tunguska Meteor Mystery," Space.com 26 June - Quote: "During a 1999 expedition, Longo's team didn't plan to investigate Lake Cheko as an impact crater, but rather to look for meteoroid dust in its submerged sediments." - Note: See also Saturday news links.
• "Rep. Rohrabacher Requests Hearing To Assess Near Earth Objects Threat," SpaceRef.com 25 June - Quote: "During testimony earlier this year, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin admitted there is no funding available to increase resources for NEO detection, despite passage of HR 1022 under the 2005 NASA Authorization Act. In addition, the Arecibo Radio Telescope, a key resource in NEO detection, is scheduled to be shut down by 2011."
• "Environmental Impact Statement for PS4," Pan-STARRS 25 June - Note: Five PDF documents with public testimony have been posted.
• "Thinking Big about Space Telescopes," Science@NASA 25 June - Quote: "Designed to deliver cargo to the Moon, the [Ares V] rocket would be large enough to carry primary mirrors 8+ meters wide [to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point]... 'L2 is a place in space where we want to place a lot of telescopes,' [Philip] Stahl continues. So 'why don't we treat it as a mountaintop?' with the telescope's satellite bus providing all the services of a real mountaintop facility."

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Minor-Object Science  on 26 June '07

• "Stokes trapping and planet formation" by Wilkinson, M. with B. Mehlig & V. Uski, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 26 June - Quote: "It is believed that planets are formed by aggregation of dust particles suspended in the turbulent gas forming accretion disks around developing stars. We describe a mechanism, termed 'Stokes trapping', which limits the growth of aggregates of dust particles."
• "Relative velocities among accreting planetesimals in binary systems: the circumbinary case" by Scholl, Hans with Francesco Marzari & Philippe Thebault, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 26 June - Quote: "We focus on one crucial parameter: the distribution of encounter velocities between planetesimals in the 0.5 to 100km size range. An extended range of binary systems with differing orbital parameters is explored. The resulting encounter velocities are compared to the threshold velocities below which the net outcome of a collision is accumulation into a larger body instead of mass erosion."
• "Evolution of dust and ice features around FU Orionis objects" by Quanz, S.P. with Th. Henning, J. Bouwman & 5 others, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 26 June - Quote: "Analyzing the dust composition reveals that significant grain growth has already taken place within the accretion disks, but no clear indications for crystallization are present. We discuss how these observational results can be explained in the picture of a young, and highly active accretion disk."
• "Disk-Planet Interaction Simulations: (I) Baroclinic Generation of Vortensity and Non-Axisymmetric Rossby-Wave-Instability" by Ou, Shangli with Jianghui Ji, Lin Liu & Xiaomeng Peng, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 26 June - Quote: "We use a multi-dimensional hydrodynamics code to study the gravitational interaction between an embedded planet and a protoplanetary disk with emphasis on the generation of vortensity (potential vorticity) through a Baroclinic Instability and subsequent development of Rossby-Wave-Instability (RWI). It is found that the generation of potential vorticity is very common and effective in non-barotropic disks through the Baroclinic Instability, especially within the coorbital region."
• "The Stellar-Disk Electric (Short) Circuit: Observational Predictions for a YSO Jet Flow" by Liffman, Kurt, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 26 June - Quote: "We show how a short circuit in the star-disk electric circuit may produce a magnetically-driven jet flow from the inner edge of a disk surrounding a young star."
• "Can Protostellar Jets Drive Supersonic Turbulence in Molecular Clouds?" by Banerjee, Robi with Ralf S. Klessen & Christian Fendt, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 26 June - Quote: "Jets and outflows from young stellar objects are proposed candidates to drive supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds... Our results question the ability of collimated jets to sustain supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds."

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NEOCP Activity  on 26 June '07

The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 6 listings: 1 new, 5 updated

When last checked at 2324 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had one new and five updated listings. Of these, one was a "one nighter." So far Major News has counted a total of nine objects listed on the NEOCP at some point today.

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New MPECs  on 26 June '07

Minor Planet Electronic Circulars

As of last check at 2324 UTC, there have been four MPECs issued today from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• MPEC 2007-M42 time-stamped "06:06 UT" - Daily Orbit Update - see below
• MPEC 2007-M43 time-stamped "19:12 UT" - 2007 MB24 - see below
• MPEC 2007-M44 time-stamped "19:15 UT" - 2007 MC24 - see below
• MPEC 2007-M45 time-stamped "22:08 UT" - Comet C/2007 M3 (LINEAR)

MPEC 2007-M45 - "22:08 UT" - Comet C/2007 M3 (LINEAR)

• CK07M030   C/2007 M3 (i=161.8°, q=3.474 AU, TP=2007 Sept. 3.817 TT) from Andrushivka Obs. (June 22.97p5), LAMP Obs. (June 23.30-32p3), Vega del Thader Obs. (June 23.98-99p5), Montcabre Obs. (June 24.11p3), Table Mtn. Obs. (June 24.28-30p4 & 26.27-28p4), Modra Obs. (June 25.97p2), and LINEAR (June 26.27-31p4)

MPEC 2007-M44 - "19:15 UT" - 2007 MC24

• K07M24C   2007 MC24 (Q=4.180 AU, H=19.4 ~446m) was discovered at 0814 UT 24 June by the Spacewatch 0.9m telescope, which observed it at June 24.34-38p3. The discovery was confirmed by the Spacewatch 1.8m telescope (June 25.38-40p3 & 26.35-36p3), the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) (June 25.40-43p2), and Jim Young via Table Mtn. Obs. (June 26.37-39p4).

MPEC 2007-M43 - "19:12 UT" - 2007 MB24

• K07M24B   2007 MB24 (risk-listed, i=47.5°, H=18.6 ~645m) was discovered at 0746 UT 24 June by LINEAR, which observed it at June 24.32-34p3. The discovery was confirmed by Remanzacco Obs. (June 24.88-90p5), Farra d'Isonzo Obs. (June 24.93p3), Modra Obs. (June 24.94p3), New Millennium Obs. (June 24.94-95p13), McCarthy Obs. (June 25.18-21p3 & 26.13-16p3), Sabino Canyon Obs. (June 25.25-26p3), Young/Table Mtn. (June 26.25-29p4), and Robert Hutsebaut via RAS Obs. Mayhill (June 26.41-42p3).

<< DOU on 26 June '07 >>  MPEC 2007-M42 - "06:06 UT" - Daily Orbit Update

• Observations of small asteroids (H>22.0)
• K07M04B   2007 MB4 (arc=10 days, H=22.7 ~98m) from Petit Jean Mtn. South Obs. (PJMSO) (June 25.30-31p8) and CSS (June 25.30-31p4)
• K07J16G   2007 JG16 (arc=45 days, H=23.7 ~62m) from Spacewatch 1.8m (June 25.37p2)
• Observations of other objects
• K07M13M   2007 MM13 (i=37.8°, arc=2 days, H=17.6 ~1.02 km) from PJMSO (June 25.24-25p11)
• K07M00G   2007 MG (arc=8 days, H=21.1 ~204m) from Spacewatch 1.8m (June 25.34-35p2)
• K07L15A   2007 LA15 (arc=12 days, H=19.4 ~446m) from PJMSO (June 25.32p1)
• K07L08V   2007 LV8 (arc=13 days, H=20.0 ~339m) from PJMSO (June 25.27-28p7)
• K07L00F   2007 LF (arc=18 days, H=20.5 ~269m) from PJMSO (June 25.26-27p7)
• K07F42V   2007 FV42 (arc=96 days, H=17.9 ~891m) from Bisei Spaceguard Center (Bisei) (May 26.63p3 & 28.65-66p5) and Hadano Obs. (June 16.61-62p5 & 19.67-68p2)
• K07F01K   2007 FK1 (arc=100 days, H=20.2 ~309m) from CSS (June 25.35-37p4)
• K07D08F   2007 DF8 (arc=123 days, H=20.4 ~282m) from Hadano Obs. (June 19.69p3)
• K06K89E   2006 KE89 (i=45.1°, q=0.211 AU, arc=2 opp, H=16.5 ~1.70 km) from PJMSO (June 25.20p5)
• K05N44W   2005 NW44 (arc=2 opp, H=20.4 ~282m) from New Millennium Obs. (June 24.91p1)
• K05A13D   2005 AD13 (arc=2 opp, H=17.9 ~891m) from Bisei (May 28.68p4)
• K04S09T   2004 ST9 (arc=2 opp, H=18.0 ~851m) from New Millennium Obs. (June 24.94-97p6)
• K02S00R   2002 SR (arc=2 opp, H=21.7 ~155m) from Spacewatch 1.8m (June 25.29-30p2)
• K02PE2Q   2002 PQ142 (arc=4 opp, H=17.7 ~977m) from CSS (June 25.19-21p4)
• D6874   136874 1998 FH74 from PJMSO (June 25.21p5)
• D6849   136849 1998 CS1 from CSS (June 25.46p3)
• D6818   136818 1997 MW1 from Hadano Obs. (June 19.73p2)
• 86039   86039 1999 NC43 from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.87-90p4)
• 85953   85953 1999 FK21 from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.82-87p7)
• 85275   85275 1994 LY from Bolzaneto Obs. (June 24.85-87p2) and New Millennium Obs. (June 24.90-94p10)
• 02100   2100 Ra-Shalom (1978 RA) from CSS (June 25.46p4)
• 01943   1943 Anteros (1973 EC) from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.82-89p7)

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Observers  on 26 June '07

A total of 20 observing facilities appear in today's MPECs.

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Impact Risk Monitoring  on 26 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 26 June '07

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