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Saturday morning's bolide east of Sacramento, California at 12:05am PDT shown here as a composite from the movie caught by Larry Stange's Yuba City Sentinel all-sky camera, part of Sandia Labs' Sentinel System network. See more info below, updated late today.

Contents  on 14 August '07

• Minor-Object News -- twelve items
• Minor-Object Science -- one paper
• IAU Minor Planet Center
  • NEOCP Activity -- four listings: 2 new, 2 updated
  • New MPECs -- six MPECs
  • Observers -- 22 observing facilities
• Impact Risk Monitoring -- one object reported
• Chronology

Resources:

• Consolidated Risk Tables - CRT page
• Ephemerides for risk-rated objects
• Ephemerides for small asteroids

The latest news: framed access (best), RSS news feed (flags updates), or redirection - Note: A/CC has a main Web site and a backup site.

Navigation tips: Use the << and >> arrows on the menus for each regular section (Observers, Risks, etc.) to move to the previous and next day's news for that section. Use the Index menu item to access specific days this year through a calendar interface. And use the all-up news archive to access news from any time since A/CC began in early 2002. To keep track of what's new each day, watch the Chronology section.

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Minor-Object News  on 14 August '07

• "'Lunar Ark' Proposed in Case of Deadly Impact on Earth," National Geographic 14 Aug. - Quote: "30 to 80 percent of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects are in orbits that are beyond the capability of current or planned launch systems [to prevent impacts]." - Note: This article refers to "an International Space University [ISU] study on surviving a collision with a near-Earth object" and to "the group Alliance to Rescue Civilization (ARC)." {permalink}
• "Puzzle of Hot Young Stars Solved," Space.com 14 Aug. - Quote: "Accreting stars have three times less X-ray emission than non-accreting stars... The dust is heated so much by the radiation from the star, that it is vaporized before it can fall on the star [mimicking the appearance of a star's surface]." {permalink}
• "Hot Gas in Space Mimics Life," Space.com 14 Aug. - Quote: "Electrically charged specks of interstellar dust organize into DNA-like double helixes and display properties normally attributed to living systems, such as evolving and reproducing, new computer simulations show." {permalink}
• "NASA Decides To Phase Out Delta 2," Space News at Space.com 13 Aug. - Quote: "Including the upcoming Dawn mission, NASA has nine remaining Delta 2 launches on its manifest with the last being a November 2009 launch out from California -- of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft [plus] a tenth Delta 2 that has not been assigned a payload... [Several] U.S. companies are looking to field Delta 2 alternatives." {permalink}
• "Life in Space -- New Theory," Cardiff Univ. 14 Aug. - Quote: "Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and colleagues at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology have long argued the case for panspermia... Now the team claims that findings from space probes sent to investigate passing comets reveal how the first organisms could have started... [Prof. Wickramasinghe said] 'We now have a mechanism for how it could have happened. All the necessary elements -- clay, organic molecules and water -- are there. The longer time scale and the greater mass of comets make it overwhelmingly more likely that life began in space than on earth.'" {permalink}
• "Meet the New Horizons Pluto Pals!" NASA New Horizons mission 13 Aug. - Quote: "[This] week we welcome the 'Pluto Pals' to the New Horizons team, five kids who were born on the same day our spacecraft embarked on its historic journey [to] the outer solar system... When they reach 4th grade, New Horizons will be at Pluto." {permalink}
• "Risky Business," Sky & Telescope 13 Aug. - Quote: "[On July 6th] an incoming object broke apart in the lower atmosphere with a trio of ferocious explosions that shattered windows and shook the ground violently. Moments later, stones rained from the sky and pelted homes in the poor barrios surrounding the notorious city of Cali, Colombia." {permalink}
• California fireballs: Beyond the Perseids show, northern California experienced multiple bright fireballs over the weekend from Friday through Sunday night. An eyewitness E-mailed an account Sunday to A/CC of a fireball seen southeast of south Lake Tahoe near midnight (we haven't learned yet which midnight) and we in turn contacted all-sky camera operators in northern California to learn what they had observed. The event that has garnered the most attention (see the following news links) was a bolide very early Saturday morning over Shingle Springs, east of Sacramento. It was caught at 12:05am PDT on the 11th by Yuba City Sentinel, as you can see in a composite image above that Larry Stange made from the movie from his Sandia Lab Sentinel System all-sky camera. Stange also received an eyewitness report from Brad Getter in Shingle Springs, excerpted here with permission and slightly edited: "We were on the ridge line at 1,850 feet. The event illuminated all of the area we were in (one mile radius), overpowering the street lamp 10 feet directly above me. It cast heavy downward shadows shifting from NNW origin to SSE with pulsing flickering, then I observed a vertical fireball trail dropping at almost a right angle to the horizon to the SSE ... followed by a breakup into four distinct items, which quickly cooled to orange, then red, then were lost in the darkness." {permalink}
  • "Lode residents startled by light, boom," Union Democrat 13 Aug. - Quote: "Many Mother Lode residents were shocked and a bit shaken by bright lights, a loud boom and strong vibrations early Saturday morning... Sheriff's departments in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties and the Sonora Police Department reported scores of calls came in after midnight Friday and throughout Saturday." {permalink}
  • "Meteor Flash Lights Up Sky," CNN Newsource at KLTV-TV (Texas) 13 Aug. - Quote: "Some residents in Sacramento, California [witnessed] Saturday night a bright object [that] streaked across the sky and exploded in midair." - Note: That's from the accompanying video, which says the interviewed eyewitness was in Shingle Springs (east of Sacramento). The article itself, posted Monday morning, lacks details of time and place. Included in the TV segment, and apparently doubted by the reporter, is uncredited all-sky camera video that we now know came from Yuba City Sentinel from very early Saturday morning. And A/CC has a direct eyewitness report from Shingle Springs from that morning, not night. {permalink}
• "First glimpses from the Perseid meteor shower," ESA 13 Aug. - Quote: "The Meteor Research Group of ESA performed coordinated observations at several locations in Austria and Germany in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and three other participating institutes... The campaign had three main goals: to determine the orbits that the particles followed before they encountered the Earth, to study the physical properties of the dust by recording the light they emit (or their light-curve), and to test the performance of a new camera, known as the Smart Panoramic Optical Sensor Head (SPOSH). [It] can image almost the complete sky... One of the cameras used by the ESA team was equipped with an objective grating, which splits up the meteor light into spectral colours. This allows the determination of the chemical composition of the particle." {permalink}
  • "2007 Perseid Shower," Cloudbait Observatory 13 Aug. - Quote: "This is a composite image of 284 meteors collected between sunset on August 9 through sunrise on August 13." {permalink}

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Minor-Object Science  on 14 August '07

• "Discovery of Two Dust Pillars near the Galactic Plane" by Ubeda, Leonardo with Anne Pellerin, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 14 Aug. - Quote: "We report the discovery of two dust pillars using GLIMPSE archival images obtained with the Infrared Array Camera on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. They are located close to the Galactic molecular cloud GRSMC45.453+0.060 and they appear to be aligned with the ionizing region associated with GRSMC45.478+0.131. Our three colour mosaics show that these stellar incubators present different morphologies as seen from planet Earth." {permalink}

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NEOCP Activity  on 14 August '07

The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 4 listings: 2 new, 2 updated

When last checked at 2355 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had two new and two updated listings. All of these were "one nighters." So far Major News has counted a total of eleven objects listed on the NEOCP at some point today.

To learn how observers use the NEOCP, see Suno Observatory's Practical guide on how to observe NEOCP object.

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New MPECs  on 14 August '07

Minor Planet Electronic Circulars

As of last check at 2355 UTC, there have been six MPECs issued today from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• MPEC 2007-P49 time-stamped "03:57 UT" - 2007 JG43 - see below
• MPEC 2007-P50 time-stamped "06:08 UT" - Daily Orbit Update - see below
• MPEC 2007-P51 time-stamped "11:01 UT" - 2007 PU11 - see below
• MPEC 2007-P52 time-stamped "18:11 UT" - 2007 PH25 - see below
• MPEC 2007-P53 time-stamped "20:53 UT" - 2007 PR25 - see below
• MPEC 2007-P54 time-stamped "21:09 UT" - 2007 PS25

MPEC 2007-P54 - "21:09 UT" - 2007 PS25

• K07P25S   2007 PS25 (small asteroid, Earth MOID=4.3 LD, H=24.9 ~35m) was discovered at 0745 UT 13 Aug. by LINEAR, which observed it at Aug. 13.32-37p5 and 14.33-38p10.

MPEC 2007-P53 - "20:53 UT" - 2007 PR25

• K07P25R   2007 PR25 (q=0.304 AU, Earth MOID=4.5 LD, H=21.3 ~186m) was discovered at 0517 UT 13 Aug. by LINEAR, which observed it at Aug. 13.22-26p4 and 14.21-26p5. The discovery was confirmed by Klet Obs. (Aug. 14.86p5).

MPEC 2007-P52 - "18:11 UT" - 2007 PH25

• K07P25H   2007 PH25 (i=54.3°, Q=5.123 AU, H=16.6 ~1.62 km) was discovered at 1649 UT 12 Aug. by the Siding Spring Survey (SSS), which observed it at Aug. 12.70-72p2, 12.76p1, 12.82p3, 13.67-71p3, and 13.81p3. The discovery was confirmed by Great Shefford Obs. (Aug. 13.13-14p2), Mt. John Obs. (Aug. 13.68-69p3), program code ( via Australian Natl. Univ. 1m telescope (ANU 1m) (Aug. 13.81p6), MPC code 194 (Aug. 14.01-02p3), Astronomical Research Obs. (ARO) (Aug. 14.35-36p3), and Rolando Ligustri via RAS Obs. Mayhill (Aug. 14.40p1).

MPEC 2007-P51 - "11:01 UT" - 2007 PU11

• K07P11U   2007 PU11 (Q=4.446 AU, H=16.4 ~1.78 km) was discovered at 0744 UT 13 Aug. by LINEAR, which observed it at Aug. 13.32-37p5. The discovery was confirmed by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) (June 26.40-42p4), Libbiano Obs. (Aug. 13.87-89p4), Farra d'Isonzo Obs. (Aug. 13.90-91p2), Klet Obs. (Aug. 13.94-95p7), Mallorca Obs. (Aug. 13.95-96p3), Ceccano Obs. (Aug. 14.02-03p3), and Ligustri/RAS Mayhill (Aug. 14.27p1).

<< DOU on 14 Aug. '07 >>  MPEC 2007-P50 - "06:08 UT" - Daily Orbit Update

• Observations of risk-listed objects
• K07P08A   2007 PA8 (Q=5.016 AU, arc=3 days, H=15.2 ~3.09 km, q=0.875 AU) from the Spacewatch 0.9m telescope (Aug. 12.26-27p3) and Klet Obs. (Aug. 13.89-90p9)
• Observations of small asteroids (H>22.0)
• K07P09S   2007 PS9 (arc=1 day, H=23.7 ~62m) from LINEAR (Aug. 13.32-37p4)
• K07P09Q   2007 PQ9 (arc=2 days, H=22.1 ~129m) from LINEAR (Aug. 13.33-37p4)
• K00P08N   2000 PN8 (arc=2 opp, H=22.1 ~129m) from LINEAR (Aug. 13.26-32p9)
• Observations of other objects
• K07P09P   2007 PP9 (arc=2 days, H=21.1 ~204m) from LINEAR (Aug. 13.26-31p13)
• K07P08E   2007 PE8 (arc=2 days, H=19.5 ~426m) from Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 12.96-98p8) and LINEAR (Aug. 13.20-23p4)
• K07P08B   2007 PB8 (arc=2 days, H=20.9 ~224m) from Spacewatch 0.9m (Aug. 12.28-29p3)
• K07N05C   2007 NC5 (q=0.277 AU, Q=4.618 AU, arc=38 days, H=18.0 ~851m) from New Millennium Obs. (Aug. 11.05-09p8)
• K07N00Q   2007 NQ (arc=34 days, H=19.4 ~446m) from Petit Jean Mtn. South Obs. (PJMSO) (Aug. 13.19-22p4)
• K07M13M   2007 MM13 (i=38.2°, arc=51 days, H=17.7 ~977m) from PJMSO (Aug. 13.16-18p6)
• K07L32R   2007 LR32 (arc=80 days, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from New Millennium Obs. (Aug. 11.03-07p6), Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 12.91-94p10), and LINEAR (Aug. 13.27-31p5)
• K07L15A   2007 LA15 (arc=61 days, H=19.5 ~426m) from PJMSO (Aug. 13.15-16p6)
• K07L08V   2007 LV8 (arc=62 days, H=20.2 ~309m) from PJMSO (Aug. 13.23-24p6)
• K07F42V   2007 FV42 (arc=145 days, H=17.9 ~891m) from SSS (Aug. 12.55-59p4)
• K07C26K   2007 CK26 (arc=2 opp, H=19.0 ~537m) from New Millennium Obs. (Aug. 10.95p2), Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 12.88-90p8), PJMSO (Aug. 13.27p6), and Klet Obs. (Aug. 13.83-84p6)
• K07C19A   2007 CA19 (Q=5.089 AU, arc=2 opp, H=17.6 ~1.02 km) from Spacewatch 0.9m (Aug. 12.44-45p3)
• K06G00B   2006 GB from PJMSO (Aug. 13.13-14p5)
• K03R07X   2003 RX7 (arc=3 opp, H=18.5 ~676m) from LONEOS (Aug. 13.27-34p4)
• K02Q06Y   2002 QY6 (q=0.246 AU, arc=3 opp, H=19.6 ~407m) from ARO (Aug. 13.08-09p3)
• K02N04N   2002 NN4 (arc=4 opp, H=20.0 ~339m) from LINEAR (Aug. 13.27-31p5)
• E5656   145656 4788 P-L from PJMSO (Aug. 13.25p5)
• E3678   143678 2003 SA224 from LINEAR (Aug. 13.38-42p4)
• 87309   87309 2000 QP from Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 12.84-87p9) and PJMSO (Aug. 13.26p5)
• 86324   86324 1999 WA2 from PJMSO (Aug. 13.24-25p5)
• 85275   85275 1994 LY from PJMSO (Aug. 13.18p5)
• 68950   68950 2002 QF15 from PJMSO (Aug. 13.14-15p5)
• 66251   66251 1999 GJ2 from LINEAR (Aug. 13.39-44p4)
• 24443   24443 2000 OG from Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 12.80-83p8) and PJMSO (Aug. 13.11-12p5)
• 16636   16636 1993 QP from LONEOS (Aug. 13.29-35p4)
• 05143   5143 Heracles (1991 VL) from LINEAR (Aug. 13.26-32p10)
• 04183   4183 Cuno (1959 LM) from LINEAR (Aug. 13.27-32p5)

MPEC 2007-P49 - "03:57 UT" - 2007 JG43

• K07J43G   2007 JG43 (q=14.277 AU, Q=34.044 AU, H=9.5 ~42.6 km) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) (2003 April 27.34p2 at V=22.01), Mt. Palomar (2004 March 30.42p1, 2004 March 31.41p1, 2004 April 13.26p1, 2004 April 13.33p1, 2004 April 13.40p1, 2004 April 16.29p1, 2004 April 16.35p1 & 2004 April 16.42p1), Spacewatch 0.9m (2006 April 29.30-33p3 & 2006 May 7.27-30p3), and the Mt. Lemmon Survey (MLS) (2006 May 30.25-27p4)

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Observers  on 14 August '07

A total of 22 observing facilities appear in today's MPECs.

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Impact Risk Monitoring  on 14 August '07

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

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.

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Chronology  on 14 August '07

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