The Asteroid/Comet Connection's
daily news journal about
asteroids, comets, and meteors

Today's issue status: done

• News briefs – bits & pieces
• Risk monitoring

Cover: Comet C/2003 H1 (LINEAR) by Bill Yeung from April 9th. During the four-minute exposure, a satellite appeared in the frame, varying in brightness as it rotated. C/2003 H1 was at perihelion on February 22nd at 2.24 AU, out past Mars, in an extremely eccentric (e=0.9992), retrograde (138.7°) orbit. According to the JPL Orbit Viewer, it will be back in about 141,054 years after passing aphelion beyond 5,417 AU (just over a light month).

Bits & pieces:  MPEC 2004-H90 today shows that an asteroidal object that travels an orbit between Mars and Jupiter has been redesignated as comet P/2004 HC18 (LINEAR). It is calculated to be at its closest to the Sun on June 18th.

A/CC has published a number of "cover" images of minor objects with satellite streaks, such as today's above. The FMO Project tells that a bright fast-moving object reported by an online volunteer reviewing images from the Spacewatch 0.9m telescope on the 28th, and submitted to the Minor Planet Center, came back identified as a satellite.

Using that same telescope in Arizona, Jim Scotti found an object April 25th that is likely to be a comet. It was confirmed on 26 and 28 April, and this morning with the Spacewatch 1.8m telescope, without cometary activity being noted, and it was announced in MPEC 2004-H91 today with asteroidal designation 2004 HV60. But, the preliminary orbit calculation has it traveling nearly perpendicularly to the ecliptic

(i=93.2°) on a path between 3 and 348 AU from the Sun. Absolute magnitude is put at H=16.8, which, from a standard formula for roughly converting brightness to size, could be upwards of 3.3 km. (2 miles) in diameter if it has the dark surface typical of comet nuclei.

Risk monitoring 30 April

The coming full Moon interferes with the discovery and tracking of potentially hazardous objects, so it is no surprise that the Friday Daily Orbit Update MPEC (DOU) has new data for only one of the seven recently in view that have impact solutions. 2004 HQ1 is reported from David Tholen's team at the University of Hawaii 2.2m Telescope on Mauna Kea from early Wednesday, within the current observation arc. Today NEODyS and JPL both cut their 2004 HQ1 risk assessments down to just one very low rated impact solution in the year 2065.