25 March 2005 - Friday

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MOS on the Web – Minor object science reporting elsewhere:

  Deep impact news

• "NASA: Comet-Smashing Deep Impact Camera Blurry," Space.com 25 March article: "The craft's Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI) and a duplicate camera on the Impactor Targeting Sensor (ITS) are operating as expected."
• "Deep Impact has blurry vision, NASA says," Florida Today 25 March article
• "NASA Releases Deep Impact Mission Status Report," NASA 25 March news release: "Another event during commissioning phase was the bake-out heating of the spacecraft's High Resolution Instrument [camera and infrared spectrometer] to remove normal residual moisture... At completion of the bake-out procedure, test images were taken through the HRI. These images indicate the telescope has not reached perfect focus."
• The March edition of the Deep Impact mission newsletter includes a mission update, camera commissioning photos of the Moon and Jupiter, and an interview with Elizabeth Warner, who handles coordination with amateur astronomers.

  Other news

• An 18-frame, 2.85Mb animation made from the (apparently) last images made of intruder 2005 FN, caught by Jeffrey Sue, has been posted on the Rent-A-Scope Web site. He says there, "When I looked at the individual images, I was surprised to discover that the asteroid was bright enough to be visible as a streak on each image." These were ten-second exposures "when the asteroid was moving approximately 100 arcseconds per minute." (See A/CC's special reporting and news links for more about this tiny object.)
• "Press Briefing To Be Held March 29 for Pluto New Horizons Environmental Impact Statement," Kennedy Space Center 24 March news release
• "April GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media highlights," Geological Society of America news item at EurekAlert 24 March, includes mention of an article about interpreting "the orientation pattern of crystals in a quartzite from the Vredefort structure in South Africa as having originated from a shock wave that was produced during meteorite impact 2 billion years ago" and another titled "Spinel-bearing spherules condensed from the Chicxulub impact-vapor plume" (more info below.)
• "Space: Final frontier for Scots ," Electronics Weekly 24 March article: "A Space Technology Centre opened last week at the University of Dundee will focus on developing tools for accurately simulating landing spacecraft on a planet or asteroid."
• "Silverton said to be ground zero of '81 fireball," Silverton, Oregon 23 March article — Inspired by a recent fireball event, this item gives details about a 3 Dec. 1981 bolide that may have ended its flight near Silverton, and also mentions earlier Oregon meteor events.

Robert Hutsebaut explains that 2005 FE3 is very faint in this discovery confirmation image because of the full Moon. This is a composite of six 60-second exposures stacked on motion of 2.30"/min. toward 49.5°.

Risk monitoring:  Yesterday's Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC reported observation of 2005 FH by UKAPP in Northern Ireland with the Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii the day before. And yesterday JPL removed its last impact solutions for this kilometer-size object (NEODyS had already removed its single solution five days earlier).
      Today's DOU doesn't carry any objects with impact solutions, but JPL has posted 2005 FE3, which was announced today in MPEC 2005-F44 as discovered Wednesday morning by LINEAR in New Mexico. It was confirmed last night by Great Shefford Observatory in England and this morning by Robert Hutsebaut in Belgium using using Rent-A-Scope at New Mexico Skies (see image at right). JPL puts this object's diameter on the order of 650 meters.

23 March 2005 - Wednesday  

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Bits & pieces:  Andrew Lowe has posted a 2005 FN page with information and an animation from his observations. No further observations have been reported of this tiny fast-fading object departing from its passage through the Earth-Moon system last Friday (see report with news links), and Mike Nolan told the Minor Planet Mailing list (MPML) Monday that he doubted Arecibo would be able to detect it by radar, something that had been planned for tomorrow.
      Several institutions participated in a news release posted at EureakAlert today, "Mystery minerals formed in fireball from colliding asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs." It reports that "simulations paint a picture of global skies filled with a bizarre rain of a calcium-rich, silicate liquid, reflecting the chemical content of the rocks around the Chicxulub impact crater."

Risk monitoring:  JPL has posted impact solutions for 2005 FC3, which was announced today in MPEC 2005-F40 as discovered early on March 17th UT by the Catalina Sky Survey's Mt. Lemmon Survey in Arizona. It was confirmed this morning with the same telescope and by Jim Bedient in Hawaii using the remote-controlled Faulkes Telescope North, also in Hawaii. JPL estimates this object's diameter at roughly 360 meters, and has its first highly preliminary solution a little more than four years from now.
      Today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC is the first since Saturday's to report observation of an object with impact solutions, which isn't unusual during the time of the full Moon. 2005 EU2 was caught at midnight UT last night by CEAMIG-REA Observatory in Brazil, and today NEODyS and JPL cut their solution counts for this small object and slightly lowered its overall risk ratings.
      Thanks once again to Stu Megan for helping keep watch on risk monitoring activity when A/CC's editor is away from the Internet. His own Web site has been revamped and now uses a slightly different URL.

20 March 2005 - Sunday

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MOS on the Web – Minor object science reporting elsewhere:

  Meteor dust

• "Two rockets launched successfully at Poker Flat," Fairbanks, Alaska Daily News-Miner 16 March article
• "Consecutive DUST rockets launch successfully," Sitka, Alaska News 16 March article: "Dr. Richard Collins and his students [used] the Geophysical Institute's Lidar Observatory to provide a context for the rocket data."
• "Poker Flat trio ready to launch," University of Alaska at Fairbanks Sun Star 1 March article: "Three scientific rockets at the university's Poker Flat Research Range [PFRR] north of Fairbanks are now pointed skyward, loaded and waiting ... for scientists to decide when conditions are right... The first to go are [two] to collect meteor dust in the mesosphere as high up as 62 miles." — A UAF Sun Star March 8th article reports that the unrelated third rocket failed.
• "Launch window open at Poker Flat," University of Alaska at Fairbanks 25 Feb. news release

  Other news

• "North Sea crater shows its scars," BBC 18 March article: "[There] is now a lively debate about the origin of Silverpit among those who study the geology of the North Sea."
• "Pupils keep an eye on the sky," Weekly News article at icCheshire 17 March: "Students at Saints Peter and Paul High became pioneers in trying out an asteroid hunting workshop for the first time and became the first pupils in the country to discover previously unfound asteroids from the comfort of the classroom ... using images obtained from the fully robotic Liverpool Telescope in the Canary Islands and ... an updated [blink] approach to a traditional technique for locating objects."
• "Asteroid on course for earth in 2880," Stuff.co.nz 17 March article: "The world will be bracing itself for a collision with a kilometre-wide asteroid exactly 875 years from yesterday."
• "Chipping pieces off Mars," Astronomy.com 16 March article: "Martian craters with rays may be the long-sought sources for the Mars meteorites found on Earth."
• "Professor's job is out of this world," St. Paul, Minnesota Pioneer 15 March article: "[Bob Pepin's] next research opportunity will come in January, with the return of the NASA Stardust mission, bearing dust from the tail of a comet." – Also see next article link.
• "Carpenter unearths meteorite on the job," St. Paul, Minnesota Pioneer 15 March article: "About 20 years after he found it, Stegora sold Anoka II for $38,000." – Bob Pepin is mentioned in this article, too.
• "Stardust: The Risk Factor," Stardust 22 Jan. report: "While expecting a soft landing we are preparing for a hard landing."

Risk monitoring:  At last check, there is no risk monitoring news to report today.

19 March 2005 - Saturday

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Amateur NEO discovery:  MPEC 2005-F28 late on the 19th UT announces the year's third NEO discovery, all found so far by Crni Vrh Observatory in Slovenia. (Crni Vrh means "Black Mountain" and is pronounced churney vruh.) 2005 FV2 was discovered last night by Stanislav Maticic, who followed it until after midnight. It was soon picked up by Great Shefford Observatory in England, which caught it again tonight along with Gnosca Observatory in Switzerland. From 2005 FV2's brightness, it is estimated by a standard formula at very roughly 490 meters/yards wide. It has an eccentric orbit (e=0.70501) that takes it from inside the orbit of Venus and out past Mars.

Intruder:  The Minor Planet Center is showing that 2005 FN's trip through the Earth-Moon system yesterday at 0.00096 AU (0.375 lunar distance) was the eighth closest yet observed by telescope. The three closest happened only last year, coming as near as 0.000086 AU (0.034 LD) from the Earth. What was different this time with this object was the attention it got while still in the discovery confirmation process, when it was coming toward Earth and no one could be sure how close it would pass, although it was fairly certain to miss. The Minor Planet Mailing list (MPML) served well to mobilize observers, coordinate information, and exchange data. If 2005 FN had entered the atmosphere, it would have ended in a harmless but spectacular high-altitude detonation. While such events aren't very rare, none has yet been predicted, and this case could have been a first. Maybe next time.
      Last night's special report on 2005 FN was expanded today with newly published and unpublished observing work added to the time line, a correction made to the caption for one illustration, and encounter distances added.

Risk monitoring:  Today's Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC reports observation of 2005 FH by Bulach Observatory in Switzerland early on the 17th and early today by Begues Observatory in Spain. Today NEODyS removed its one impact solution for this kilometer-size object, while JPL lowered its risk assessment, presently having five solutions beyond the NEODyS 2080 time horizon.
      The DOU also reports observation of 2005 EU2 from Pla D'Arguines Observatory in Spain last night, and today both risk monitors slightly lowered their overall risk ratings for this small object.

18 March 2005 - Friday  

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Intruder:  The object of special interest talked about last night (news) was announced today as 2005 FN in MPEC 2005-F24 (time-stamped 1152 UTC), and JPL shows that this big boulder (H=26.9, ~14 meters/yards wide) passed Earth today at 0.4 lunar distance at about 2143 UTC (4:43pm EST). The MPEC carries 169 positions from five observatories over a period of 24.307 hours, so the NEO observer community really nailed this one, as you can read about in detail under the "Discovery Time Line" on A/CC's newly posted special report, "2005 FN: Practice at tracking incoming objects." Also included there are confirmation images from the Mt. Lemmon Survey, illustrations of the Earth-Moon system configuration during the fly-through, and more about Pasquale Tricarico's penumbral passage concept for refining orbital calculations.
      A/CC was tipped today that 2005 FN is now planned for radar observation, and, indeed, the Arecibo schedule is showing that it has been added for March 24th. Astrometry and photometry are requested to support this.

Radar news:  JPL's Lance Benner didn't mention 2005 FN, but he did tell the the Minor Planet Mailing list (MPML) in a message today that "Arecibo and Goldstone radar observations of 2005 EU2 are scheduled on several days between March 27 - April 10" and asked for astrometry to help better point the radar. One thinks of "radar" as something that sweeps the sky looking for stuff, but that's not how it works when bouncing signals off of Solar System objects. The operators need to have a very good idea of where to point, and some idea of what expect for properties such as rotation and surface composition. Once locked on, however, the results can be better than observing with optical telescopes. 2005 EU2 is already a priority, of course, because it has impact solutions (see news yesterday and since March 5th).
      Benner also asked for astrometry (sky positions) and especially photometry (observations aimed at determining rotation or composition) to help prepare for radar observation of 1999 RR28 "between March 25 - April 3" (see news March 13th).

Risk monitoring:  Today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC reports observation of 2005 EE169 from Jornada Observatory in New Mexico early yesterday, 2005 EG94 from the day before at Mt. John Observatory in New Zealand, and 2005 FH from yesterday morning at LINEAR in New Mexico. Today NEODyS posted 2005 FH with impact solutions, and JPL slightly raised its overall low risk ratings for this kilometer-size object. Both NEODyS and JPL today significantly lowered their risk assessments for 2005 EG94, which JPL estimates to be on the order of 690 meters/yards wide. And both today removed their few impact solutions for 2005 EE169.
      NEODyS today also posted 2005 EJ225 as a risk. See yesterday's report for more about this object.