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July
2005
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17 July 2005 - Sunday
Odd ball: MPEC 2005-O03 today announces the July 6th discovery of 2005 NP82 by Gordon Garradd at the Siding Spring Survey in Australia, confirmed by Garradd and others during 6-13 and 15-17 July. It is an asteroidal-appearing object on a comet-like path, going the "wrong way" around the Sun, at inclination i=130.8° and coming closer to, and going further away from, the Sun than Jupiter. Its diameter is roughly estimated from its absolute magnitude (brightness, H=13.9) to be on the order of 5.6 km. (3.5 miles), and up to more than double that if it is a very dark comet nucleus.
Risk monitoring: There was no risk monitoring news to report on Friday. Yesterday's Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC reported observation of 2005 NB7 from Desert Moon Observatory in New Mexico the morning before. NEODyS and JPL both lowered their risk assessments and significantly cut impact solution counts for this object, which JPL puts at more than 600 meters/yards in diameter.
Today's DOU carries observations of 2005 NZ6 from Farpoint Observatory in Kansas early yesterday. Both risk monitors have solidly lowered their overall risk ratings for this kilometer-plus object, with JPL cutting its solution count from 297 to nine, after starting at 550 ten days ago.
And today's DOU also reports positions for FMOP-discovery 2005 NX55, the first published since its discovery announcement five days ago (see news thread below). Today NEODyS and JPL lowered their risk assessments for this small object and cut solution counts, but NEODyS still has a solution less than two and a half years from now, in January 2008.
The 2005 NX55 observing comes from the morning of the 12th from David Tholen's small-solar-elongation program with Roy Tucker at the 90" Bok telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona and Fabrizio Bernardi. Asked about the work, Tucker told A/CC today that, since the program "concentrates on the period after evening twilight and before morning twilight, we had some time during the middle of the night to follow up on known objects and NEOCP objects." He says, "We were observing with the 90Prime camera, which has an array of four 4Kx4K CCDs yielding a total coverage of a bit over one square degree per image. [Tholen and Bernardi] have a program of searching at small solar elongations for objects interior to the Earth's orbit. My participation is as the University of Arizona collaborator and certified instrument operator, which means I'm acquainted with the operation of the camera and do the actual image acquisition. Examination of the images is a joint effort by all of us. A pattern of images requires about 25 minutes to obtain but takes between two and three hours to process and examine." These three are the team that first discovered 99942 2004 MN4, later rediscovered by Gordon Garradd at the Siding Spring Survey.
July
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14 July 2005 - Thursday
Editorial notes: A/CC's Web host experienced a problem Monday evening that made site access difficult. Remember that a news backup is maintained with different hosting, where the A/CC site is duplicated except for the RSS news feed and larger Catchall Catalog.
About the CRT, remember that the UTC times given are for when the risk monitoring changes are noted at ACC, not for when posted by the sources. There is some regularity in when A/CC checks risk monitoring sites but interruptions aren't unusual, and there can be some delay between noting and posting new information. The checking process is semi-automated but does require manual participation and getting to an Internet connection.
Comet news: Today there are two more comets named "Catalina" — C/2005 N4 and C/2005 N5 announced in MPECs 2005-N73 and 2005-N74. The former is shown with first observations from the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) in Arizona on July 6th, and the latter on July 12th. C/2005 N5 has its first preliminary calculation of perihelion as coming on the 20th of next month at 1.64525 AU, while C/2005 N4 is calculated to have passed perihelion 12 days ago, traveling on a retrograde path (i=116.7°) path.
MPEC 2005-N59 of July 11th reported the recovery of 101P/Chernykh by Jim Young at Table Mountain Observatory in southern California on July 10th and 11th. As explained on Cometography's 101P/Chernykh page, this object was discovered in 1977 and during its 1991-92 apparition was found to have split off a piece of itself. Perihelion this time around is calculated for December 25th at 2.3505 AU.
Risk monitoring: On Tuesday, July 12th, JPL posted 2005 NX55, which was announced earlier as Ed Majden's FMO from early the day before (see news below). Discovery confirmation came 24 hours later with the Spacewatch 1.8m telescope in Arizona, from which nine positions were reported over a period of almost two hours. Yesterday NEODyS also posted this small object, with a few more impact solutions during 2008-2080 than JPL has within its entire hundred-year time horizon.
2005 NX39 was reported in the Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPECs of the 12th and 13th from Marxuquera Observatory in Spain early on the 11th, McCarthy Observatory in Connecticut early on the 12th, and Great Shefford Observatory in England early on the 13th. That day, yesterday, both JPL and NEODyS removed their last impact solutions for this object, which JPL puts at roughly 400 meters/yards wide.
The Spacewatch 1.8m telescope reported 2005 NG from the morning of the 11th, and NEODyS removed its last impact solution for this small object on the 12th. Early the next day, 2005 NJ1 was reported from Great Shefford reported, and NEODyS subsequently removed its last solution for this half-kilometer object.
And, to wrap up three days' news, yesterday both JPL and NEODyS updated their risk assessments for 2005 NB7 based on existing data, and today's DOU reported no observations of objects with impact solutions.
July
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11 July 2005 - Monday
FMOP news: The Spacewatch 0.9m telescope discovery with temporary designation SW40Pe was "Added July 11.42 UT" to the Minor Planet Center's NEO Confirmation Page (NEOCP). Marco Langbroek informs A/CC that it was found online from British Columbia.
“ Ed Majden from Courtenay, Canada, just discovered his second FMO in the Spacewatch FMO Project... Ed, who is retired and well known for his amateur meteor work (spectroscopy and all-sky camera; you'll remember last year's big June Washington state fireball [June 3rd, see news]), also discovered 2004 MV2 on June 19, 2004 [FMOP news]. ”
Risk monitoring: Today NEODyS joined JPL in posting 2005 NX39 (see news yesterday below) and removing 2005 NE7 as risks. JPL raised its risk assessment for 2005 NX39 and NEODyS slightly raised its very low ratings for 2005 NG, which JPL no longer lists. And both risk monitors slightly lowered their risk assessments for 2005 NB7 while significantly cutting their counts of impact solutions and now showing the first in 2020 instead of 2008.
Today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC carries observations of those four objects, with Great Shefford Observatory in England catching 2005 NB7, 2005 NG, and 2005 NX39 around midnight UT last night. More 2005 NX39 observing came from the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona and Farpoint Observatory in Kansas early yesterday UT and from McCarthy Observatory in Connecticut this morning. And 2005 NE7 was reported from Los Molinos Observatory in Uruguay yesterday morning.
July
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10 July 2005 - Sunday
Amateur NEA: MPEC 2005-N44 today announces the newest amateur-discovered near-Earth asteroid. 2005 NY39 was found yesterday by John Broughton at Reedy Creek Observatory in southeastern Queensland. It was confirmed this morning from Los Molinos Observatory in Uruguay, Grasslands Observatory in Arizona, Robert Hutsebaut in Belgium using Rent-A-Scope remotely at New Mexico Skies, and by Table Mountain Observatory in southern California. From its absolute magnitude (brightness), it is very roughly estimated at 235 meters/yards wide.
With the year a little more than half through, 2005 now has five amateur-discovered NEAs as compared with last year's four, seven in 2003, and six in 2002, which is when A/CC began tallying. One of this year's carried impact solutions for a time, as did two last year, including the kilometer-size 2005 GA1 that was also found by Broughton.
Comet news: A week of further observation can make a big difference when it comes to newly discovered comets. MPEC 2005-N46 today shows that comet C/2005 N3 has been redesignated P/2005 N3 (Larson), going from a preliminary parabolic calculation to a closed orbit. Perihelion is moved by only ten days (8 instead of 18 December), but is also now moved to the other side of Mars, at 2.19929 instead of 1.25088 AU.
MPEC 2005-N45 today reports the recovery of comet P/2004 DO29 (Spacewatch-LINEAR) by Spacewatch with its 1.8m telescope in Arizona on June 4th and by Table Mountain Observatory in southern California early today UT. It hadn't been reported observed since April 20th last year. For info about this object's discovery, see A/CC's news report.
Risk monitoring: JPL has posted 2005 NX39, which was announced today in MPEC 2005-N43 as discovered yesterday morning UT by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona and confirmed last night by Great Shefford Observatory in England and this morning by Grasslands Observatory in Arizona and Table Mountain Observatory in southern California. JPL puts its diameter estimate at 422 meters/yards.
Today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC reported no observations of objects with impact solutions. And the only other risk news from today is that NEODyS updated its 2005 NB7 risk assessment.
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9 July 2005 - Saturday
Radar news: Noted in yesterday's news below as observed by radar, it turns out that 1994 XD is annotated on the JPL Asteroid Radar History page as being binary. This is brought to our attention by Wm. Robert Johnston, who maintains listings of binary asteroids.
Looking around further on various radar pages finds some other interesting items. One is that potentially-hazardous comet P/2005 JQ5 (Catalina) was observed from Arecibo in Puerto Rico very early on June 12th UT, several days after its last impact solution had been removed, becoming the 11th comet to be studied by radar. (See more info about this object here temporarily.) Near-Earth asteroid 2003 CY18, which is scheduled for observation from Arecibo beginning three days from now, is noted as having been already successfully observed. And an attempt to ping small object 2003 YN107 from Arecibo during 23-26 June resulted in "no detection."
Risk monitoring: Today's Daily Orbit Update MPEC (DOU) shows that the Australian National University 1m telescope in New South Wales observed 2005 NE7, 2005 NG, and 2005 NJ1 all within 15 minutes on Thursday, and 2005 NG also on July 4th. Today JPL removed its impact solutions, and NEODyS lowered its risk assessments, for these three objects.
The DOU also has observation of 2005 NZ6 yesterday from the Faulkes Telescope North (code "3") in Hawaii, and today NEODyS and JPL again lowered their risk assessments for this object, which JPL puts as 1.26 kilometers (0.78 mile) wide. And among the 150-plus impact solutions that each cut from their solution counts today were all before 2031.
July
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8 July 2005 - Friday
Bits & pieces: Jim Gamble has posted to his latest events page a meteor caught over El Paso, Texas by his all-sky camera at 11:08pm MDT on July 3rd.
The Wednesday Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC shows radar observation of 1994 XD during 25-26 June from Arecibo in Puerto Rico. And today's DOU reports, apparently for the first time, radar observation of 10115 1992 SK during 22-26 March 1999 from Goldstone in southern California.
SOHO is ten comets away from a thousand discoveries, including a first find for a newcomer, Tao Chen, and the hundredth find for Xavier Leprette. NASA has a news release template already up, just waiting for the coming milestone.
Risk monitoring: Today's Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC reports observation of four objects with impact solutions. 2005 NG and 2005 NJ1 were caught yesterday morning by Powell Observatory in Kansas. And 2005 NB7 was picked up Wednesday by Australian National University 1m telescope in New South Wales and early yesterday UT by the Catalina Sky Survey and Powell Observatory. Today NEODyS raised, and JPL slightly raised, their very low risk assessments for small object 2005 NG.
These are the first observations reported since their recent discoveries for 2005 NB7 and 2005 NJ1, objects that are estimated at roughly a half-kilometer or more in diameter. Both NEODyS and JPL today raised their overall risk ratings for 2005 NB7 while cutting their solution counts. And they both lowered their assessments for 2005 NJ1 and cut to just two or three solutions.
The fourth object in the DOU, 2005 NZ6, was reported from Wednesday from the Siding Spring Survey in New South Wales. Today NEODyS and JPL slightly lowered their risk assessments for this kilometer-plus object and, despite a cut in solution counts, still show hundreds of solutions. Large counts of impact solutions are not unusual for a newly discovered object, especially one that crosses the orbits of all the inner planets on an eccentric path (e=0.8629) at low inclination (i=8.5°).
JPL today very slightly raised its 99942 2004 MN4 overall risk ratings in an assessment that now incorporates observations reported in three DOUs since June 9th.
July
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7 July 2005 - Thursday
Risk monitoring: Appearing on the risk lists today is what looks to be the most interesting object since 2004 MN4 and 2004 VD17. 2005 NZ6 was announced in MPEC 2005-N34 yesterday and is estimated at 1.2 kilometers wide (about 3/4 mile). It was discovered on the morning of July 3rd by JPL's NEAT program with its Mt. Palomar telescope in southern California and was confirmed two mornings later by Sabino Canyon Observatory in Arizona, McDonald Observatory in Texas, and the Faulkes Telescope North (code "3"). The discovery process was closed out on the morning of July 6th by Table Mountain Observatory in southern California, and today's Daily Orbit Update (DOU) MPEC reported observation just afterward from McDonald Observatory.
JPL today posted this object with 550 highly preliminary impact solutions from April 2008 into 2105, and NEODyS posted it with 291 solutions through its 2080 time horizon. They assign preliminary cumulative Palermo Scale ratings on par with or exceeding their very well established assessments for 2004 MN4 (459-day observation arc), which continues to be rated at Torino Scale 1, but both risk monitors have issued their first 2005 NZ6 risk assessments at TS-0 (from a 3-day arc).
Today's DOU reported observation of 2005 NE7 from CEAMIG-REA in Brazil yesterday, within the discovery observing arc. Today NEODyS posted this half-kilometer object and JPL slightly raised its low risk assessment. NEODyS today also posted 2005 NB7. (See more about 2005 NB7 and NE7 in news yesterday.)