Feb. '05 stack 3, Major News about Minor Objects

Tombaugh Telescope: Gary Hug sent out this announcement yesterday:

We now have locked in a time and date for dedicating the new 0.7-meter Tombaugh Telescope. The schedule is still subject to minor changes but overall should be reasonably accurate.
The first week in March, I will be traveling to ScopeCraft in Kanab, Utah for a shakedown of the new telescope. The telescope is to arrive on the Farpoint site on the 15th of March. The next few days will be used to assemble the telescope. After that FAST personal will train on the new telescope's use.
April 2nd the Tombaugh Telescope will be dedicated with this schedule is as follows:

2:00 P.M. Welcome Announcements - Graham Bell
2:05 P.M. Brief Comments by -
Lindley Johnson, NASA
Dr. Bruce Twarog, Kansas University
Chuck Schmidt, USD 330 Superintendent
2:30 P.M. Closing comments - Gary Hug, Farpoint Observatory - FAST
2:35 P.M. reception & lunch in the new middle school building (lunch provided by the members of NEKAAL)

Throughout the lunch, Farpoint Observatory will be open for inspection of the new Tombaugh Telescope. That evening we will also have a "first light" ceremony at roughly 800PM, then NEO observations (weather permitting). We will provide a brownish aqueous caffeine mixture of substantial strength.
Significant funding for the instrumentation used in the Farpoint Asteroid Search Team (FAST) NEO follow-up program is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate grant #NNG04G120G.

For more about the Clyde Tombaugh Telescope, destined for the Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers League (NEKAAL) Farpoint Observatory ("about 30 miles southwest of Topeka"), see 2004 news of 20 May, 19 June, and 15 September. And to learn what role Lindley Johnson plays in NASA NEO work, see news 3 March ("Short warning times") and 8 April ("NEO survey") last year.
Note: Mozilla Firefox browser users will probably have trouble reading those linked pages, and, for that matter, any other A/CC fancy-format news pages of January-October 2004. The worst of the problem may be fixed in a future Firefox update, but for now any other modern browser will render those pages better.

Risk monitoring: There is no risk monitoring news to report from today. From yesterday, the Daily Orbit Upate MPEC reported that UKAPP in Northern Ireland, remotely operating the Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii, observed 2005 CC37 and 2005 CF41 Monday. NEODyS and JPL both removed their few impact solutions for the half-kilometer 2005 CF41 yesterday, while NEODyS slightly lowered, and JPL very slightly raised, overall low risk ratings for 2005 CC37, an amateur-discovered small object.

	The Asteroid/Comet Connection's daily news journal about asteroids, comets & meteors – 13-18 February 2005 [ report news - alt \| RSS subscribe - link \| about A/CC \| space news links \| Catchall Catalog - alt ]
	[ 19 February 2005 news ]
18 Feb. 2005 top	18 February 2005 - Friday MOS on the Web \| risk monitoring \| index \| << ^^ >> \| top MOS on the Web – Minor object science reporting elsewhere, listed newest first by category: Earth impact news "U.S. Research Ship Faces Mexican Fines," AP wire story at ABC News 18 Feb.: "[The U.S. NSF] ship Maurice Ewing hit a reef about 30 miles off the Yucatan peninsula on Monday, even though the reef was clearly marked on maps... The ship is using sound waves to search for traces of an asteroid that may have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago." "Opponents say basalt mine may ruin pictographs," Bend, Oregon Bulletin 15 Feb.: "An image — painted on a rock wall [shown] off a lonesome stretch of Highway 20 east of Bend — depicts a comet striking the Oregon desert thousands of years ago, some say. 'In Paiute history, it killed a lot of people and animals,' said Wilson Wewa, who has visited the site to pray since he was a boy. 'That pictograph was a representation of that event.' " An article at Highways West 15 Feb. based on this report notes that "there are no known meteor or comet craters in Oregon." Pluto anniversary & New Horizons mission "Pluto: The Discovery of a Planet," Planetary Society 18 Feb. article in five parts "Humble Lawrence abode has out-of-this-world history," Lawrence, Kansas Journal-World 18 Feb. article: "They lived in their house ... for 33 years before learning last month it was once home to Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the planet Pluto." "Scientists hope probe will lift Pluto's veil of mystery," Denver, Colorado Rocky Mountain News 18 Feb. article "Pluto discovery," Phoenix, Arizona Republic 18 Feb. article: "[Marc Buie] said that a recent alteration was made in the New Horizons craft that lopped off two of the corners of the nearly 1,000-pound, triangular-shaped craft." "Pluto Mission Takes Aim at Last Unvisited Planet," National Geographic 15 Feb. article "Pluto at 75: Still Crazy After All These Years," Space.com 15 Feb. article Solar sailing "Space technology: Setting sail for history," Nature 16 Feb. article: "[It could] reach Pluto in less than five years — half the time the NASA New Horizons mission will take... One proposed JAXA mission would ... place a probe in orbit around Jupiter's poles and fly past several asteroids... [ESA is] studying another mission concept called Earthguard to visit near-Earth asteroids." "Earth To Mars in a Month With Painted Solar Sail," Space.com 11 Feb. article Other news "Calgary eyes rogue asteroids," Toronto, Ontario Globe & Mail 17 Feb. article: "The former Canadian Air Force relic [Baker-Nunn telescope] underwent a three-year retrofit, at a cost of $500,000 [and] is based atop a hill at the university's Rothney Astrophysical Observatory southwest of Calgary near Priddis." "UND asteroid hunter spots rare near-Earth missile," Grand Forks, North Dakota 17 Feb. article — Note: Just to be clear, 2005 AB was originally discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) in Arizona. See Vishnu Reddy's report below about discovering that this is a binary object. "Picture Imperfect: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope," Sky & Telescope 17 Feb. article: "NASA's infrared observatory suffers from a small amount of trefoil aberration caused by a slight distortion of the 30-centimeter secondary mirror in its mounting." The February newsletter of the Deep Impact comet mission, apparently posted 16 February, includes first light images from the flyby spacecraft's 0.3m and 0.12m telescopes and an interview with mission manager Dave Spencer. A mission update by Spencer tells of commissioning activities during 16-22 January, and about how the spacecraft was affected by a major solar flare on January 19th. Jim Gamble has posted to his Latest Meteor Events page a JPEG and QuickTime movie of a fireball caught over El Paso, Texas by his all-sky camera 1:06am MST on 15 February. Risk monitoring: As the time of the full Moon approaches, NEO observation slows, and today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC carries new observations of only six asteroids, all observed yesterday morning. One was 2005 CC37, with two positions reported from Sandlot Observatory in Kansas, and today NEODyS lowered, and JPL very slightly lowered, overall risk ratings for this small object.

17 Feb. 2005 top	17 February 2005 - Thursday recovery \| risk monitoring \| index \| << ^^ >> \| top Recovery: Among the rarest of recoveries, of a small object, was reported in MPEC 2005-D03 early today UT, while still yesterday evening at the Minor Planet Center. It reports that tiny 2003 YN107 was picked up on January 8th by David Tholen, Fabrizio Bernardi, and, at the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, Todd Burdullis. This was followed by observation on 14 February by Andrea Boattini with the 3.58m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla in Chile. This object was discovered on 20 December 2003 and was last reported observed on 5 January 2004. Estimated from its brightness to be less than 20 meters/yards wide, it is an Earth co-orbital candidate, as reported in a 3 March 2004 report, which has further links to 2003 YN107's discovery and other news. Risk monitoring: Today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC reports observation yesterday of 2004 MN4 from Sandlot Observatory in Kansas and of 2005 CC37 with the Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii (credited to program code "3"). Today NEODyS updated its 2004 MN4 risk assessment with almost no change and has only one very low-rated impact solution left for 2005 CC37. JPL has slightly raised its 2005 CC37 risk assessment, with four of its five solutions beyond the NEODyS 2080 time horizon.

16 Feb. 2005 top	16 February 2005 - Wednesday Tombaugh Telescope \| risk monitoring \| index \| << ^^ >> \| top Tombaugh Telescope: Gary Hug sent out this announcement yesterday: We now have locked in a time and date for dedicating the new 0.7-meter Tombaugh Telescope. The schedule is still subject to minor changes but overall should be reasonably accurate. The first week in March, I will be traveling to ScopeCraft in Kanab, Utah for a shakedown of the new telescope. The telescope is to arrive on the Farpoint site on the 15th of March. The next few days will be used to assemble the telescope. After that FAST personal will train on the new telescope's use. April 2nd the Tombaugh Telescope will be dedicated with this schedule is as follows: 2:00 P.M. Welcome Announcements - Graham Bell 2:05 P.M. Brief Comments by - Lindley Johnson, NASA Dr. Bruce Twarog, Kansas University Chuck Schmidt, USD 330 Superintendent 2:30 P.M. Closing comments - Gary Hug, Farpoint Observatory - FAST 2:35 P.M. reception & lunch in the new middle school building (lunch provided by the members of NEKAAL) Throughout the lunch, Farpoint Observatory will be open for inspection of the new Tombaugh Telescope. That evening we will also have a "first light" ceremony at roughly 800PM, then NEO observations (weather permitting). We will provide a brownish aqueous caffeine mixture of substantial strength. Significant funding for the instrumentation used in the Farpoint Asteroid Search Team (FAST) NEO follow-up program is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate grant #NNG04G120G. For more about the Clyde Tombaugh Telescope, destined for the Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers League (NEKAAL) Farpoint Observatory ("about 30 miles southwest of Topeka"), see 2004 news of 20 May, 19 June, and 15 September. And to learn what role Lindley Johnson plays in NASA NEO work, see news 3 March ("Short warning times") and 8 April ("NEO survey") last year. Note: Mozilla Firefox browser users will probably have trouble reading those linked pages, and, for that matter, any other A/CC fancy-format news pages of January-October 2004. The worst of the problem may be fixed in a future Firefox update, but for now any other modern browser will render those pages better. Risk monitoring: There is no risk monitoring news to report from today. From yesterday, the Daily Orbit Upate MPEC reported that UKAPP in Northern Ireland, remotely operating the Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii, observed 2005 CC37 and 2005 CF41 Monday. NEODyS and JPL both removed their few impact solutions for the half-kilometer 2005 CF41 yesterday, while NEODyS slightly lowered, and JPL very slightly raised, overall low risk ratings for 2005 CC37, an amateur-discovered small object.

14 Feb. 2005 top	14 February 2005 - Monday MOS on the Web \| comet news \| risk monitoring \| index \| << ^^ >> \| top MOS on the Web – Minor object science reporting elsewhere: Meteor news "Meteoric rise for space fireworks display," Wodonga, Victoria, Australia Border Mail 10 Feb. article: "A dazzling meteor streaked across the skies early yesterday with the 'fireball' signalling the peak of two showers... [The] alpha-centaurids and beta-centaurids showers, active from February 2 to February 25, peaked on Tuesday night and into yesterday morning." "Extrasolar Planets May Have Diamond Layers," Princeton University news release at SpaceRef.com 7 Feb.: "Planets like the Earth are thought to condense from disks of gas orbiting young stars. In gas with extra carbon or too little oxygen, carbon compounds like carbides and graphite condense out instead of silicates, possibly explaining the origin of carbonaceous chondrites and suggesting the possibility of carbon planets." Exo minor planet & other extrasolar news "Scientists announce smallest extra-solar planet yet discovered," Pennsylvania State University news release at EurekAlert 7 Feb.: "Immersed in an extended cloud of ionized gas, the new planet orbits a rapidly spinning neutron star called a pulsar... The small planet, about one-fifth of the mass of Pluto, may occupy the same outer-boundary position in its planetary system as Pluto does in our solar system." "Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System," Spitzer Space Telescope news release 7 Feb.: "NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted a dusty disk of planet-building material around an extraordinarily low-mass brown dwarf... Astronomers speculate that the disk circling OTS 44 has enough mass to make a small gas giant planet and a few Earth-sized, rocky ones." "Strange Miniature 'Solar Systems' Revealed," Space.com 7 Jan. article "Brown dwarf may someday harbour habitable planets," New Scientist 8 Feb. article "A Flurry of Exoplanet Discoveries," Sky & Telescope 9 Feb. article Pluto discovery anniversary "Pluto: Planet Or Junk Snowball?" AP wire story at CBS News 14 Feb. "Pluto at 75: a uniquely American anniversary," article by S. Alan Stern at The Space Review 14 Feb. Comet news: The German Comet Section has a 13 Feb. news item telling that "An Apollo-type minor planet, 2003 WY23, discovered in November 2003, by the Catalina Sky Survey seems to be identical with one long-lost periodic comet [D/1819 W1 (Blanpain)]... The comet is also suspected of being the origin of the one-time meteor stream of the Phoenicids of 1956." 2003 WY25 is a potentially hazardous object and was listed by JPL with one impact solution from 22 until 24 November 2003. It has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) currently calculated at 0.01658 AU by NEODyS, which shows close approaches in the years 2020, 2035, and 2067, but not so close as in December 2003, when it passed Earth at 0.02486 AU (9.7 lunar distances). It is also potentially hazardous to Mars and approaches Jupiter. Risk monitoring: Today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC reports observation of 2005 CC37 last night from Great Shefford Observatory in England, and today NEODyS slightly lowered, and JPL slightly raised, their overall low risk ratings for this small object.

13 Feb. 2005 top	13 February 2005 - Sunday binary news \| Mt. Lemmon Survey \| risk monitoring \| index \| << ^^ >> \| top Binary news: Vishnu Reddy writes to A/CC: I thought this information might be of some interest to your readers. Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION Circular No. 8483 - 2005 February 11 2005 AB V. Reddy, Department of Space Studies, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks; R. Dyvig, Quinn, SD; and P. Pravec and P. Kusnirak, Ondrejov Observatory, report that photometric observations obtained during Feb. 1-8 show that the Amor-type minor planet 2005 AB (cf. MPEC 2005-A05, 2005-C48) is a binary system with orbital period 17.9 hr. The primary rotates with a period of 3.337 hr, and its lightcurve amplitude of 0.04 mag is indicative of a nearly spheroidal shape. Mutual events 0.06-0.11 mag deep indicate a secondary-to-primary mean-diameter ratio of 0.24 or greater. Further observations (especially radar and spectroscopic) are desirable. The discovery was made using Mr. Ron Dyvig's homemade 26-inch telescope from Badlands in South Dakota and confirmed by Dr. Petr Pravec's group in Czech Republic. Some Indian newspaper Web sites are reporting about it, but have omitted some information and have got some facts wrong, so I wanted to clarify that. Most of what the Hindustan Times said February 12th is okay. But they failed to mention my collaborators and got the IAU's name wrong! Dr. Lance Benner had this to say about radar observations: "I checked for radar opportunities to observe this object. The primary should be detectable at Arecibo in late February and again from late April into May, but the signal-to-noise ratios are on the edge for detection of the secondary. However, since the view periods of 2005 AB and 2005 CR37 overlap in two weeks, I'm going to request time for both. Assuming that we get time, we'll give 2005 AB a try, but if we don't detect the secondary, we'll devote most of our time to 2005 CR37." IAU Circulars are copyrighted by CBAT and are only available to MPC Computer Service subscribers (learn how to subscribe). Mt. Lemmon Survey: A/CC said in reports of last December 19th and two days ago, since changed, that the Mt. Lemmon Survey (MLS) telescope was the 61" telescope adjacent to the the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) telescope. (They are at Mt. Bigelow Observatory on the side of Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona.) This telescope (aka 1.54m, 1.6m, Catalina Station, or Kuiper) has been used occasionally by CSS staff for follow-up work, but Ed Beshore at CSS tells A/CC that, "This is not the telescope used by our survey. Rather, it is the telescope formerly known as the NASA 1.5m telescope located at the summit of Mt. Lemmon. This telescope was formerly used for testing instruments that were flown on the Gerard Kuiper Airborne Observatory and for other infrared observations. We have outfitted it with optics to reduce its f ratio to make it more suitable for wide field (1 degree) deep survey work." You can learn more about the MLS telescope (aka 60") on the Mt. Lemmon Infrared Observatory and CSS Facilities pages. All of these telescopes were threatened by fire in June of 2003, as reported in an A/CC news summary. Risk monitoring: Today's Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC reports observation of 2004 MN4 early yesterday from Petit Jean Mountain Observatory in Arkansas and Powell Observatory in Kansas, as well as by Crespadoro Observatory in Italy on February 5th. Today NEODyS very slightly lowered its risk assessment. The DOU also has 2005 CC37 from Powell Observatory yesterday morning and from Great Shefford Observatory in England last night. Today NEODyS lowered, and JPL very slightly lowered overall risk ratings for this small object.
[ previous news: 12 February 2005 ]