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From Peter Birtwhistle, this image of 2007 RS1 is "a stack of 40 four-second exposures. With the object moving at 244"/min., it appears as a trail 16" long moving toward the upper left. At the time it was at a distance of about 213,400 km., or 0.55 lunar distance (LD), on its way to passing the Earth at 0.19 LD less than six hours later." See his story below. Details: 2007 Sept. 04 20:33:57-20:38:34 UT, moving in P.A. 45.6°, north up, binned 2x2, scale 2.15"/pixel, 0.40 f/6 Schmidt-Cassegrain. ©Copyright 2007 Great Shefford Observatory.

Contents  on 8 September '07

• Minor-Object News -- three items
• Minor-Object Science -- none yet today
• IAU Minor Planet Center
  • NEOCP Activity -- five listings: 4 new, 1 updated
  • New MPECs -- two MPECs
  • Observers -- eight 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 8 September '07

• Asteroid shadows cross U.S.: There are two asteroid stellar occultation events in the next two mornings with tracks across the U.S. northeast, upper midwest, and southwest. See these Steve Preston predictions: 704 Interamnia at 0904 UT tomorrow morning, the 9th, and 585 Bilkis at 0857 UT on Monday the 10th. Interamnia's occultation will also be viewable from parts of Canada and Mexico. David Dunham has posted comments about these and some other occultations here (a page with changing contents). Instructions are here on how you can participate in providing data. Observers usually travel to do this work, but, when a path happens to cross over an observatory with fixed location, a CCD drift-scan technique can be used. This, by the way, is an observing activity where seeing no result can be as important as succeeding. Watching from outside the predicted path can help, too, as the prediction may be off some, or an occultation by an unknown satellite of the asteroid might be spotted. {permalink}
• "Dawn ELV Status Report," NASA KSC 7 Sept. - Quote: "Technicians will be installing Dawn into the payload canister on Sept. 10 for transportation to Launch Complex 17. The spacecraft will be mated to the Delta II rocket at Pad 17-B on Sept. 11... Installation of the payload fairing around the spacecraft is scheduled for Sept. 19." {permalink}
• Catching 2007 RS1: On Wednesay we reported intruder 2007 RS1, an unexpected tiny object that flew past the Earth early that day at about a fifth of the distance to the Moon. We noted that it had gone out of view shortly afterward and that the Mt. Lemmon Survey's 3.62-hour discovery arc might be all the observation that it would get. It was subsequently posted by JPL and NEODyS as an impact risk, although any entry into the atmosphere by something so small would probably result in only a spectacular high-altitude explosion. We learned from yesterday's DOU MPEC and risk monitoring that 2007 RS1's observing arc had been extended by 11.24 hours by Great Shefford Observatory in England, and this was enough to get it delisted as an impact risk. What the DOU didn't convey was the effort that went into this accomplishment. Here is Peter Birtwhistle's story:
  That night I had started imaging in twilight at 19:44 UT. The uncertainty area as indicated on the NEOCP for what would be later designated 2007 RS1 was already about 3.5 degrees long by 20:00 UT and set to double in the next 70 minutes. After covering a couple of fields I recalculated the ephemeris using FindOrb to reject a couple of outlying positions. I then got a telephone call to pick up my daughter from Newbury (a 20-mile round trip from the observatory) so, in the midst of the search, all I could do was to position the telescope some distance ahead of the path of the object and let the camera take images hoping that the NEO would pass through my 18'x18' field of view.
        I ended up with 756 images in total, 564 taken during the time I was away from the observatory. Soon after I got back, the sky clouded over for the night and, after several hours of searching through the images, I could not find any sign of the object.
        When 2007 RS1 was announced in MPEC 2007-R21, I could see that the nominal prediction was now very close to the FindOrb prediction I had been working from that night. And so I set about searching the 564 images again, from the MPC's predicted position outward, eventually finding telltale streaks about midway through the run. After measuring those I could then identify it entering the field of view at the very end of another run I made earlier in the evening.
  He ended up reporting six positions from those images, with the last four trailed due to the approaching object's speed. See an image above from when 2007 RS1 was just over half a lunar distance from Earth. {permalink}

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Minor-Object Science  on 8 September '07

No science papers are known or prepared yet today.

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NEOCP Activity  on 8 September '07

The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 5 listings: 4 new, 1 updated

When last checked at 2356 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had four new and one updated listings. Of these, three were "one nighters." So far Major News has counted a total of six objects listed on the NEOCP at some point today.

To learn how observers use the NEOCP, see the Practical guide on how to observe NEOCP object by Birtwhistle et al. at Suno Observatory.

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New MPECs  on 8 September '07

Minor Planet Electronic Circulars

As of last check at 2357 UTC, there have been two MPECs issued today from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• MPEC 2007-R32 time-stamped "06:07 UT" - Daily Orbit Update - see below
• MPEC 2007-R33 time-stamped "20:09 UT" - 2007 RN7

MPEC 2007-R33 - "20:09 UT" - 2007 RN7

• K07R07N   2007 RN7 (H=21.5 ~170m) was discovered at 0735 UT 05 Sept. by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), which observed it at Sept. 5.32-40p8 and 8.39-40p8. The discovery was confirmed by the Spacewatch 0.9m telescope (Aug. 23.35-38p3).

<< DOU on 8 Sept. '07 >>  MPEC 2007-R32 - "06:07 UT" - Daily Orbit Update

• Observations of risk-listed objects
• K07R01E   2007 RE1 (almost small, Q=4.228 AU, arc=6 days, H=21.9 ~141m) from Great Shefford Obs. (Sept. 7.96-97p2)
• Observations of previously risk-listed objects
• K07R01J   2007 RJ1 (small asteroid, arc=5 days, H=25.1 ~32m) from Great Shefford Obs. (Sept. 7.94p3)
• K07P28F   2007 PF28 (arc=15 days, H=19.3 ~467m) from Panker Obs. (Aug. 24.93-95p5)
• Observations of small asteroids (H>22.0)
• K07R02G   2007 RG2 (arc=3 days, H=23.7 ~62m) from Great Shefford Obs. (Sept. 8.12p3)
• K07R02E   2007 RE2 (arc=3 days, H=22.8 ~93m) from Great Shefford Obs. (Sept. 8.11p3)
• Observations of other objects
• K07R05F   2007 RF5 (arc=3 days, H=18.1 ~812m) from Great Shefford Obs. (Sept. 8.12-13p3)
• K07R01T   2007 RT1 (arc=4 days, H=20.6 ~257m) from Great Shefford Obs. (Sept. 8.08-09p3)
• K07P08E   2007 PE8 (arc=116 days, H=19.4 ~446m) from Petit Jean Mtn. South Obs. (PJMSO) (Sept. 7.31-32p6) and Eschenberg Obs. (Sept. 7.79-80p5)
• K07L32R   2007 LR32 (arc=105 days, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from PJMSO (Sept. 7.30-31p6)
• K07L00V   2007 LV (arc=2 opp, H=18.1 ~812m) from the Siding Spring Survey (SSS) (Sept. 7.53-55p3)
• K03SM2W   2003 SW222 (arc=3 opp, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from PJMSO (Sept. 7.29-30p5)
• K01Q34C   2001 QC34 (arc=2 opp, H=19.9 ~355m) from Eschenberg Obs. (Sept. 7.84p2)
• K00R37W   2000 RW37 (arc=3 opp, H=20.0 ~339m) from Eschenberg Obs. (Sept. 7.88p3)
• J99J03U   1999 JU3 (arc=4 opp, H=19.3 ~467m) from PJMSO (Sept. 7.28-29p5) and Eschenberg Obs. (Sept. 7.80-81p7)
• F4453   154453 2003 CJ11 from New Millennium Obs. (April 24.84-86p3)
• E5656   145656 4788 P-L from New Millennium Obs. (April 24.92-94p4)
• D8883   138883 2000 YL29 from New Millennium Obs. (April 24.84-88p5)
• 66959   66959 1999 XO35 from SSS (Sept. 7.44-46p4)
• 42286   42286 2001 TN41 from SSS (Sept. 7.44-46p6)
• 40267   40267 1999 GJ4 from New Millennium Obs. (April 24.92-94p4)
• 16636   16636 1993 QP from PJMSO (Sept. 7.32-34p3)
• 04257   4257 Ubasti (1987 QA) from New Millennium Obs. (April 24.85-90p6)

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Observers  on 8 September '07

Eight observing facilities appear in today's MPECs.

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Impact Risk Monitoring  on 8 September '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 8 September '07

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