<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

Contents  on 28 June '07

• Minor-Object News -- five items
• Minor-Object Science -- three papers
• IAU Minor Planet Center
  • NEOCP Activity
  • New MPECs -- two MPECs
  • Observers -- eight 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.

<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

Minor-Object News  on 28 June '07

• "Mars and Earth: Different to the Core," Space.com 28 June - Quote: "The research also showed that the moon contains the same silicon ratio as Earth... [This is] consistent with the theory that our Moon was born when a Mars-sized planet ... collided with early Earth."
  • "Scientists find that Earth and Mars are different to the core," Science and Technology Facilities Council at EurekAlert 28 June - Quote: "We were quite startled at our results which showed that the heavier isotopes from silicate Earth samples contained increased proportions of the heavier isotopes of silicon. This is quite different from meteorites from the silicate portions of Mars and the large Asteroid Vesta -- which do not display such an effect even though these bodies also have an iron core."
• "Cornell and NAIC search for funding to keep Arecibo's radar alive," Cornell Chronicle 27 June - Quote: "Although the radar system is not expensive -- its operating costs are roughly $1 million a year -- it is not clear who should pick up the tab. The NSF and NASA have both supported the radar in the past, but neither agency feels responsible for saving the radar now... If neither agency agrees to foot the bill, the Arecibo radar will start operating with reduced hours in October 2007, and will likely be inactivated after September 30, 2008... 'Then we'd only have the Goldstone radar system in California, which is 20 times less sensitive, and is used mainly for spacecraft telemetry,' [said Don Campbell]."
• "Dawn ELV status report," NASA KSC 27 June - Quote: "The Dawn spacecraft arrived at Pad 17-B this morning and was hoisted atop the Delta II launch vehicle... In preparation for the upcoming July 3 Flight Readiness Review, the mission team is working to resolve several issues. These include engineering checkouts and analysis on solid rocket motor attachment points strength; cork insulation repair; battery replacement; and additional technical checkouts of the launch vehicle."
• "Radioactive iron, a window to the stars," ESA 25 June - Quote: "All past reported sightings of iron-60 have been subject to controversy. Now [ESA's orbiting gamma-ray observatory] Integral has provided unequivocal evidence... Until this detection, astronomers had only one radioactive isotope to probe into the current build-up of chemical elements in stars and their distribution with respect to future star formation. That was the radioactive isotope aluminium-26, first discovered in 1978."

<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

Minor-Object Science  on 28 June '07

• "The Thermal Regulation of Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks. IV. Simulations with Envelope Irradiation" by Cai, Kai with Richard H. Durisen, Aaron C. Boley & 2 others, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 28 June - Quote: "We present three-dimensional radiative hydrodynamics simulations of protoplanetary disks with the presence of envelope irradiation."
• "The Thermal Structure of the Circumstellar Disk Surrounding the Classical Be Star gamma Cassiopeia" by Sigut, T.A.A. with C. E. Jones, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 28 June - Quote: "We have computed radiative equilibrium models for the gas in the circumstellar envelope surrounding the hot, classical Be star gamma Cassiopeia ... using a code that incorporates a number of improvements over previous treatments of the disk's thermal structure... [For] the first time, the thermal structure of a Be disk is computed for a gas with a solar chemical composition as opposed to assuming a pure hydrogen envelope... We also discuss the changes in the disk's thermal structure that result from the additional heating and cooling processes available to a gas with a solar chemical composition over those available to a pure hydrogen plasma."
• "Carbonates in space -- The challenge of low temperature data" by Posch, Th. with A. Baier, H. Mutschke & Th. Henning, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 28 June - Quote: "Since very cold calcite grains have been claimed to be present in protostars and in Planetary Nebulae such as NGC 6302, the changes of their dielectric functions at low temperatures are relevant from an astronomical point of view. We have derived the IR optical constants of calcite and dolomite from reflectance spectra -- measured at 300, 200, 100 and 10K -- and calculated small particle spectra for different grain shapes."

<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

NEOCP Activity  on 28 June '07

The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page is currently empty

The NEOCP is currently empty and hasn't been noted by Major News as active yet today (last checked at 2341 UTC).

<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

New MPECs  on 28 June '07

Minor Planet Electronic Circulars

As of last check at 2341 UTC, there have been two MPECs issued today from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• MPEC 2007-M48 time-stamped "06:08 UT" - Daily Orbit Update - see below
• MPEC 2007-M49 time-stamped "14:27 UT" - 2007 MK6 = 2006 KT67

MPEC 2007-M49 - "14:27 UT" - 2007 MK6 = 2006 KT67

• K07M06K   2007 MK6 (q=0.196 AU, H=19.9 ~355m)

<< DOU on 28 June '07 >>  MPEC 2007-M48 - "06:08 UT" - Daily Orbit Update

• Observations of risk-listed objects
• K07M24L   2007 ML24 (arc=3 days, H=19.0 ~537m) from the Spacewatch 1.8m telescope (June 24.45p3)
• K07M24B   2007 MB24 (i=47.7°, arc=4 days, H=18.5 ~676m) from Spacewatch 1.8m (June 27.25p2) and Great Shefford Obs. (June 27.95-96p3)
• Observations of almost-small asteroids (21.7<H<=22.0)
• K07M00R   2007 MR (arc=10 days, H=21.8 ~148m) from Great Shefford Obs. (June 27.93-94p3)
• Observations of other objects
• K07M20T   2007 MT20 (arc=4 days, H=18.4 ~708m) from Great Shefford Obs. (June 27.00p3)
• K07M13M   2007 MM13 (i=38.1°, arc=4 days, H=17.6 ~1.02 km) from the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) (June 27.34-35p8)
• K07M13L   2007 ML13 (arc=6 days, H=20.2 ~309m) from Great Shefford Obs. (June 27.98-99p3)
• K07M04C   2007 MC4 (arc=9 days, H=21.1 ~204m) from Jim Young via Table Mtn. Obs. (June 28.22-24p4)
• K07L19V   2007 LV19 (arc=13 days, H=20.0 ~339m) from Young/Table Mtn. (June 28.17-19p4)
• K07L15B   2007 LB15 (arc=14 days, H=19.5 ~426m) from Spacewatch 1.8m (June 27.27-28p3)
• K07L00L   2007 LL (arc=20 days, H=20.4 ~282m) from Young/Table Mtn. (June 28.20-22p4)
• K07K04N   2007 KN4 (Q=5.505 AU, arc=38 days, H=17.1 ~1.29 km) from CSS (June 27.39-41p4)
• K07G03S   2007 GS3 (arc=78 days, H=19.3 ~467m) from Great Shefford Obs. (June 28.06-07p2)
• K07D83B   2007 DB83 (arc=3 opp, H=18.3 ~741m) from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.95-07p10)
• K07D08K   2007 DK8 (arc=123 days, H=19.0 ~537m) from New Millennium Obs. (March 13.01-10p7)
• K07C26O   2007 CO26 (Q=4.508 AU, arc=58 days, H=21.3 ~186m) from New Millennium Obs. (March 13.01-09p7)
• K07B50B   2007 BB50 (Q=4.885 AU, arc=85 days, H=18.5 ~676m) from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.91-06p13)
• K00U16V   2000 UV16 (arc=4 opp, H=17.0 ~1.35 km) from El Leoncito Obs. (June 24.06p1)
• K00A93X   2000 AX93 (arc=3 opp, H=17.6 ~1.02 km) from the Spacewatch 0.9m telescope (June 25.41-44p3)
• F4007   154007 2002 BY from New Millennium Obs. (March 13.04-07p4)
• F2895   152895 2000 CQ101 from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.91-05p10)
• 85275   85275 1994 LY from Bolzaneto Obs. (June 26.87-89p3)
• 52750   52750 1998 KK17 from Spacewatch 0.9m (June 26.35-38p3)
• 31221   31221 1998 BP26 from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.90-06p12)
• 22771   22771 1999 CU3 from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.90-06p13)
• 09202   9202 1993 PB from Spacewatch 1.8m (June 27.45-46p3)
• 03199   3199 Nefertiti (1982 RA) from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.95-10p12)
• 03103   3103 Eger (1982 BB) from New Millennium Obs. (March 12.90-06p13)

<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

Observers  on 28 June '07

Eight observing facilities appear in today's MPECs.

<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

Impact Risk Monitoring  on 28 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 this.

<<   Top | Contents | News | Science | NEOCP | MPECs | Observers | Risks | Chronology | Index   >>

Chronology  on 28 June '07

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