Daily Minor Planet

Clearing Up the FUD on 2012 DA14

J.L. Galache — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:00:47 +0000

FUD, Fear Uncertainty & Doubt; that’s what surrounds NEA (Near Earth Asteroid) 2012 DA14 right now. As the organisation responsible for receiving, processing and cataloguing all observations of asteroids made around the world, we at the Minor Planet Center are in a unique position to understand the complexities of asteroid orbits and their possible encounters with our planet Earth. Hopefully I can distil our expertise and clear up all the false and misleading information regarding asteroid 2012 DA14 that’s floating around the internet and news lately.

Discovered by La Sagra Observatory (located in the province of Granada in Southern Spain) … Continue reading...

The Flyby of Asteroid 2011 CP4 on 2012/02/23

J.L. Galache — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:37:32 +0000

Another close flyby will be taking place on the night of February 23^rd. I know it’s more than a week away, but I thought I’d get a head start on the doom-sayers. This time we’re being visited by a rock about the size of 1.5 to 3.5 football fields (160 – 350 m), which would survive its passage through the atmosphere and reach the ground as a fair sized meteorite. Lucky for us, it will pass some 3.5 million km (2.18 million miles) from Earth, which sounds very far away, but in astronomical distances is quite close as … Continue reading...

Green Lantern Gets a Red F in Solar System Astronomy

J.L. Galache — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:10:00 +0000

The other evening I watched Green Lantern on DVD. I suppose it’s an OK part 1, back story, introduction to the character type of movie, for what will likely become yet another superhero franchise. Ryan Reynolds is his usual funny, charming self as Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern), the special effects are good, and I was entertained for a couple hours. At least off-duty me was. On-duty, MPC astronomer me, however, nearly choked when the Green Lantern flies away from Earth and, no sooner has our dear planet left the screen, he reaches the Asteroid Belt. Say what? He … Continue reading...

First Ground-Based Discovery of a Kreutz Sungrazing Comet since 1970

Tim Spahr, Director — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:53:59 +0000

These are exciting times—we’ve had the first ground-based discovery of a Kreutz sungrazing comet since 1970!

CBET 2930 reports the discovery by Terry Lovejoy (Thornlands, Queensland, Australia) of a rapidly brightening comet, now designated C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). It appears to be one of the famous Kreutz sungrazing comets. These comets have perihelion distances (closest point to the Sun) of tiny fractions of an astronomical unit and are named after Heinrich Kreutz, the German astronomer who proved they were all fragments of a much larger comet that broke up centuries ago. Some come so close to the Sun … Continue reading...

Is It a Bird, Is It a Plane…Is It a Meteor…? How to Tell the Difference

J.L. Galache — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:16:59 +0000

Looking up at the sky is so passée in the modern world that few of us do it, which is probably why perfectly normal sights are misidentified when observed under uncommon circumstances. For example, everybody knows what a plane looks like, flying high in the sky, right? Not necessarily! Take a look at the video below, it was titled Asteroid ”2011 MD” – Cuernavaca-Mexico, yet this was not an asteroid (and certainly not 2011 MD)—it was just an aeroplane flying high in the sky at dusk in the direction of the Sun, which is why its contrails appear … Continue reading...

Close, but no Cigar: The Flyby of Asteroid 2005 YU55

J.L. Galache — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 02:45:40 +0000

Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered in late 2005 (duh!) by Bob McMillan and Jim Scotti of Spacewatch, at the Lunar and Planetary Lab within the University of Arizona. Once the orbit was refined thanks to continued observations it became clear 2005 YU55 would not hit the Earth…though it would pass near. In a few weeks, late on November 8 (UTC), 2005 YU55 will fly by the Earth and Moon and continue, barely perturbed, on its 446 day orbit around the Sun.

Its closest approach of 325,162 km (202,089 miles) will take place around 23:29 UTC (18:29 ET). … Continue reading...

New Giant Digital Sensor to Record Movies of Faint Meteors

J.L. Galache — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:00:17 +0000

Canon, the digital camera giant, has just announced the development of a new CMOS sensor with dimensions of 202 x 205mm, which is about 48 times the area of film or sensors used in traditional 35mm photography, and some 108 times the area of sensors currently used in most consumer DSLRs by Canon and others.

But why the need for a such a large sensor? In photography, size matters, and the larger your light-sensitive surface, the more light you can capture, and thus the dimmer the objects you’ll be able to record. That’s exactly what researchers at the University of … Continue reading...

Jupiter vs. Comet P/2011 P1: No Contest

Gareth Williams — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:00:22 +0000

“In the red corner, weighing in at 1048 Earth masses, King of the Planets, give it up for Juuuupiteeeer! And in the blue corner, weighing in at one ten-billionth of an Earth mass, the new kid on the block, Comet 2011 P1!”

A recent comet discovery by prolific comet discoverer Rob McNaught has turned out to be an interesting example of large short-term orbit changes. Even before we put out the initial discovery announcement on MPEC 2011-P19 it was apparent that the comet was physically close to Jupiter. This caused some problems with determining the initial orbit and deciding whether … Continue reading...

Too Close for Comfort? The Near-Earth Approach of 2011 MD

J.L. Galache — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:22:17 +0000

On June 27^th 2011, a chunk of rock about the size of a school bus (though maybe as large as an 18-wheeler) whizzed by Earth at a distance of around 12,000 km (7,460 miles) from the ground. Discovered by LINEAR on June 22^nd, it was designated 2011 MD by the MPC.

To put its close approach distance in perspective, consider a few facts:

Earth’s diameter is 12,750 km (7,925 miles).
GPS satellites orbit 20,200 km (12,555 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
Geostationary satellites such as Meteosat orbit at a height of 35,800 km (22,250 miles).

A … Continue reading...

How the MPC Defines “Interesting”: An Overview of Digest2

J.L. Galache — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:00:24 +0000

Sonia Keys, one of the MPC programmers, has written the first in a series of articles that will explain how the program Digest2 works. In short, Digest2 looks at a recently observed object moving across the sky and determines how likely it is to be a near Earth object; at the MPC, an NEO is always considered “interesting” and worthy of further attention. Read the full article here.… Continue reading...