Earth's Busy Neighborhood

    ACC's Small Object Report for 7-13 August 2006    

A semi-automated report compiled on 13 August 2006 at 2359 UTC

One small asteroid was reported in the last 168 hours, during which none were newly discovered.
Currently 1,077 NEAs are listed with H>22.0 by JPL and/or the MPC (897 are listed as such by both).

[ news | objects by size | object index alpha/cross-ref | 48 Hours | viewing | weekly ]

Editor's note:  As asteroids go, "small" is defined as having an absolute magnitude (brightness) calculated at greater than H=22.0, which converts very roughly to a diameter under 135 meters. No matter how close they come to the Earth, the astronomical community does not classify such objects as "potentially hazardous." However, as demonstrated by the mile wide (1.6 km.) Barringer Crater in Arizona, blasted out by a "small" asteroid some 50,000 years ago, there are asteroids too small to be labeled "potentially hazardous" that actually could cause severe local damage. These are sometimes called "Tunguska-class objects" (TCOs), after the 1908 event probably caused by a comet fragment or asteroid too small to be classified today as hazardous but packing enough wallop to flatten a Siberian forest area the size of a large city.
      NEODyS in December 2005 changed its main Risk page to classify "Objects too small to result in heavy damage on the ground" as having "absolute magnitude > 25," which corresponds to perhaps 35 meters wide. And JPL two months earlier started flagging (with a blue background) risk-listed objects of "Estimated diameter 50 meters or less" as "not likely to cause significant damage in the event of an impact, although impact damage does depend heavily upon the specific (and usually unknown) physical properties of the object in question."
      Small asteroids that come close enough to Earth to be seen have significant potential for scientific study today, and for exploration and exploitation in the future. They present a sampling of distant asteroid populations and a few may be remnants of the event that created the Earth-Moon system.
      Some of these objects are discovered while close to Earth moving across the sky quite quickly, when they are called "FMOs" or "VFMOs" (very fast moving objects). The discovery and follow-up tracking of asteroids with H>22.0 represents some of the most difficult and very best observing work being done today by amateur and professional astronomers around the world, and the page you are reading is dedicated to recognizing their ongoing successes.

• Week in Review:  This past week no discoveries of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) of any size were announced, and none have been since August 1st, with the last small asteroid announcement having been on July 26th. And no recent observations of small asteroids were reported this past week.
        The circumstances that led to these results are many, including the full Moon early this past week, most of the NEO survey sites continuing to be clouded out by an unusually active summer wet season in the southwestern U.S., and short Summer nights in the northern hemisphere where most observing is done. Amateur NEO observers are widely scattered and so not as easily shuttered all at the same time, but for the most part they are not set up to make NEO discoveries on their own. Instead they are practiced at using techniques to stretch the abilities of smaller telescopes to be able to help confirm and follow objects discovered by the professional surveys, which have larger wide-field telescopes and their own special software to detect moving objects.
• Aug. 13:  No observations of small asteroids are reported on Sunday
• Aug. 12:  Saturday's Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC 2006-P45 shows that someone found small asteroid 2003 DZ15 in observations from NEAT's Mt. Palomar telescope of 7 March 2003, early in this object's 25.245-day observing arc. Discovered on February 28th with NEAT's Haleakala telescope, 2003 DZ15 was listed by JPL and NEODyS for a time that March as an impact risk. NEODyS is showing that it may next be in view seven years from now.
• Aug. 7-11:  No observations of small asteroids have been reported on Monday through Friday, which isn't uncommon during the time of the full Moon.
• See news from the week of 31 July-6 August and from previous weeks, and you also can look up individual small asteroids.

  Object Listings -- smallest objects first [ Alpha Index | 48 Hours | top ]



  2003 DZ15 (K03D15Z) [ JPL Orbit Viewer | NEODyS object home | news | viewing | index | top ]

  Size estimate: 121 meters per JPL H=22.23, MPC H=22.2
  JPL classifies 2003 DZ15 as an Apollo and calculates an Earth MOID of 0.000392 AU (0.15 LD),
    and reports this object passed Earth at 26.2 lunar distances (LD) on 7 Feb. 2003.
  Lowell Observatory reports 2003 DZ15 has an MOID of 0.02026 AU (7.88 LD) with Venus.
  Observations are reported from the following observatories in MPEC 2006-P45:
    NEAT's Mt. Palomar telescope [644]
      2003-03-07 1124-1154, 3 pos. in MPEC 2006-P45, follow-up



  48+120 Hours [ Objects Listings (size order) | Object Index (alpha/xref) | top ]

  Observations of one small object was reported during the last 168 hours: 2003 DZ15
    in MPEC 2006-P45 (Daily Orbit Update) time-stamped 2006 Aug. 12, 06:09 UT.
  Date & times for other sources that were parsed to compile this page:
    JPL Close Approaches, downloaded at 2006 Aug. 5, 1735 UTC
    JPL NEO Orbital Elements, downloaded at 2006 Aug. 12, 1700 UTC
    Lowell Observatory Orbit intersections, time-stamped 2006 Aug 13 1141:35 UTC
    MPC NEA.DAT from MPC mirror, downloaded at 2006 Aug. 12, 1644 UTC
    Risk monitoring sites, as of A/CC's check at 2006 Aug. 13, 2359 UTC (see CRT page)
  Some observation sets have MPEC codes in parentheses, such as (*) denoting discovery.


  Viewing Opportunities for Small Objects [ news | size order | alpha order | top ]

  This compilation shows 12 small objects as being currently in view,
    including 12 not reported in the last seven days.
  Viewing by date order - see this list also by designation order
  Object     View until MOID AU  Dia H     Arc   Notes       (calc date)
  ---------- ---------- -------- --- ----- --- - -----------------------
  2006 OB7   2006-08-26 0.031055  55 23.93   9 - past obs. - (3 Aug.)
  2006 MH10  2006-09-01 0.124765 122 22.22  23 - past obs. - (16 July)
  2006 KK103 2006-09-01 0.139955 110 22.44  50 - past obs. - (16 July)
  2006 OC7   2006-09-07 0.040448  96 22.74   7 - past obs. - (31 July)
  1999 LK1   2006-09-11 0.027513 129 22.09 2op - past obs. - (3 Aug.)
  54509      2006-09-15 0.000154 104 22.56 4op - aka 2000 PH5 - past obs. - (26 July)
  2006 OE10  2006-09-15 0.047656  37 24.82   8 - past obs. - (5 Aug.)
  2005 QQ87  2006-09-18 0.079408  95 22.76  10 - faint recov. poss. - (16 July)
  2006 OY4   2006-10-03 0.086402  65 23.57   5 - past obs. - (27 July)
  1999 RJ33  2006-10-10 0.026859 108 22.49  16 - faint recov. poss. - (16 July)
  2004 SC56  2006-10-19 0.011296  92 22.84  13 - faint recov. poss. - (16 July)
  1998 HG49  2006-12-21 0.076404 141 21.91 3op - "only 1 night" - past obs. - (16 July)

  Viewing by designation order - see also Viewing by date order
  Object     View until MOID AU  Dia H     Arc   Notes       (calc date)
  ---------- ---------- -------- --- ----- --- - -----------------------
  2006 OE10  2006-09-15 0.047656  37 24.82   8 - past obs. - (5 Aug.)
  2006 OC7   2006-09-07 0.040448  96 22.74   7 - past obs. - (31 July)
  2006 OB7   2006-08-26 0.031055  55 23.93   9 - past obs. - (3 Aug.)
  2006 OY4   2006-10-03 0.086402  65 23.57   5 - past obs. - (27 July)
  2006 MH10  2006-09-01 0.124765 122 22.22  23 - past obs. - (16 July)
  2006 KK103 2006-09-01 0.139955 110 22.44  50 - past obs. - (16 July)
  2005 QQ87  2006-09-18 0.079408  95 22.76  10 - faint recov. poss. - (16 July)
  2004 SC56  2006-10-19 0.011296  92 22.84  13 - faint recov. poss. - (16 July)
  1999 RJ33  2006-10-10 0.026859 108 22.49  16 - faint recov. poss. - (16 July)
  1999 LK1   2006-09-11 0.027513 129 22.09 2op - past obs. - (3 Aug.)
  1998 HG49  2006-12-21 0.076404 141 21.91 3op - "only 1 night" - past obs. - (16 July)
  54509      2006-09-15 0.000154 104 22.56 4op - aka 2000 PH5 - past obs. - (26 July)

  Out-of-view date based on MPES solar elongation <40° and/or magnitude V>22.0 at 1200 UT
    geocentric. (Not factored in is any lunar interference with viewing.)
  Objects are linked in the left-most column only if observed in the last seven days,
    while objects with earlier small-object reporting are linked under "Notes."
  Diameter ("Dia") is in meters, a very rough estimate from brightness (H).
  Observing "Arc" is from MPES in days or number of oppositions.
  "In view" does not necessarily mean locatable for objects with short arcs in prior years
    and for which a large search or accidental rediscovery are the best hopes.



  Small object observation cross index [ size order | 48 Hours | viewing | top ]

---

http://www.HohmannTransfer.com/h22/wk060813.htm
Publisher information, privacy statement, and disclaimer.
Please report broken links or other problems with this page to <webmaster@hohmanntransfer.com>.
This page is © Copyright 2006 Columbine, Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Do NOT copy or mirror this page, but please do link to it. All information here is subject to very frequent change.
Individuals may make "snapshot" copies for their own private non-commercial use.
Updates for this page are flagged by A/CC's RSS news feed (link)