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News briefs
MPEC news: MPEC 2004-U41 yesterday reports that Giussepi Forti, Roberto Haver, and Andrea Pelloni have located the large Mars-crossing 2004 NZ8 in archives from the 1.2m U.K. Schmidt telescope 27 May 1976 at Siding Spring in Australia and from the Mt. Palomar 1.2m Schmidt 21 October 1995 in southern California. This object was discovered on July 14th this year by John Broughton at Reedy Creek Observatory in Australia and linked to observations from the Siding Spring Survey from June 28th and from LINEAR in New Mexico on July 11th, and further confirmation came from Broughton on the 16th (MPEC 2004-O11). With absolute magnitude (brightness) H=16.1, a standard but very inexact formula puts 2004 NZ8's diameter at roughly 2.0 km. (1.3 miles). The closest it comes to the Sun is 1.3463 AU, beyond the 1.3 AU definition for near-Earth objects.
Slightly larger than 2004 NZ8 is 2003 QO104, a PHA that kept NEO observers and risk analysts busy during September and October a year ago. It was reported in yesterday's Daily Orbit Update MPEC as observed Sunday morning with the Spacewatch 1.8m telescope in Arizona, which on September 16th picked up this object for the first time since late December (see report)
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All-sky news: Jim Gamble now has a Latest Meteor Events page with both composite JPEGs and QuickTime movies for bright meteors caught with his all-sky camera in El Paso, Texas. Presently the page lists nine events from 16 to 23 October.
SCN news: The European Spaceguard Central Node (SCN) today stood down its observing campaigns for 2004 TN1 and 2004 TD18, both of which are still in view but have had their orbital calculations much improved and all impact solutions removed.
Of three asteroids in Sunday's small objects report that lacked SCN priorities and visibility predictions, one has since made an appearance on the SCN Priority List. 2004 UR was posted yesterday as level-1 “Urgent” and noted to go out of view November 13th, but was removed today.
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