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Contents  on 23 May '07

• Minor-Object News -- six items
• Minor-Object Science -- five papers
• IAU Minor Planet Center
  • NEOCP Activity -- eleven listings: 7 new, 4 updated
  • New MPECs -- three MPECs
  • Observers -- nineteen observing facilities
• Impact Risk Monitoring -- one object reported
• Chronology

WELCOME to A/CC's prototype daily news publication designed to be the viewing end of a planned autonomous 24-hour news service. The new tools and this publication format are working well enough now to share with readers. It is expected that this approach will require less time to maintain than our previous news and small asteroid pages, which were retired on May 14th. There's still more development ahead and there probably will be some glitches along the way, but this is what's needed to keep up with the increasing pace of minor-object news. The CRT page will be maintained separately for a little while longer, until all of this is working smoothly. And the CRT and small-asteroid ephemerides will be kept going.

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Minor-Object News  on 23 May '07

• "The Earth remains a work in progress," Penticton Western 23 May - Quote: "A few days ago people across southern British Columbia saw a fireball ... that shot across the sky southwards, leaving a glowing, pinkish trail. There was a report, at present unconfirmed, that the object hit the ground near Osoyoos, just north of the U.S. border."
• "Comet Wiped Out Early North American Culture, Animals, Study Says," National Geographic 23 May - Quote: "A comet exploded over North America about 13,000 years ago, causing a long bout of climate cooling, according to a controversial new theory presented today... It would also be the first known extraterrestrial impact to affect modern humans."
• "Rosetta Status Report - May 2007," ESA Rosetta comet mission 23 May - Quote: "The Mars flyby was a major mission milestone as it had to place the spacecraft on the proper trajectory for the second Earth flyby in November this year. In contrast to most flybys where one tries to gain orbital energy, this one was implemented to actually slow down the S/C to target it at Earth."
• Small asteroids: Discoveries of two small asteroids -- 2007 KV2 and 2007 KW2 -- have been reported today, both from the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona from two mornings ago (see below). JPL reports that 2007 KV2 flew past Earth at about 6.5 lunar distances on May 13th, and has now posted this object as a low-rated impact risk (see below).
• "Aten asteroid 2007 HA," Great Shefford Obs. 21 May - Note: In a nice gallery image, asteroid 2007 HA is shown "passing irregular galaxy NGC 4449 in Canes Venatici" on April 17th eleven hours after it had flown past Earth at 6.5 lunar distances. This object, with a diameter very roughly estimated at 235 meters, was discovered only the day before.
• "Gunflint trail fire yields geological treasure," KARE-TV 23 May - Quote: "Earlier this month [Mark Jirsa discovered rocks in Minnesota] believed to be ash and debris from an enormous meteorite, that crashed 700 miles away in Sudbury, Ontario, 1.8 billion years ago. Never ... has this type debris been found so far away from the Sudbury impact site."

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Minor-Object Science  on 23 May '07

• "Radial Transport in the Solar Nebula: Implications for Moderately Volatile Element Depletions in Chondritic Meteorites" by Fred J. Ciesla, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org Feb. 2007
• "Study of grain compositions in comet Levy 1990XX" by H.S. Das, R. Bhattacharjee, B.K. Sinha & A.K. Sen, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 23 May
• "Polarimetric studies of comet Halley" by H.S. Das & S.R. Das, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 23 May
• "Polarimetric studies of comet Hale-Bopp" by H.S. Das & A.K. Sen, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 23 May
• "Evidence for coeval Late Triassic terrestrial impacts from the Rochechouart (France) meteorite crater" by Laurent Carporzen & Stuart A. Gilder, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org March 2007 - Quote: "Together, these [Rochechouart and Manicouagan paleomagnetic] observations reinforce the hypothesis of a Late Triassic, multiple meteorite impact event on Earth."

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NEOCP Activity  on 23 May '07

The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 11 listings: 7 new, 4 updated

When last checked at 2356 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had seven new and four updated listings. Of these, eight were "one nighters." Major News counted a total of fourteen objects listed on the NEOCP at some point on this day.

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New MPECs  on 23 May '07

Minor Planet Electronic Circulars

There were three MPECs issued this day from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• MPEC 2007-K34 time-stamped "06:09 UT" - Daily Orbit Update - see below
• MPEC 2007-K35 time-stamped "16:31 UT" - 2007 KV2 - see below
• MPEC 2007-K36 time-stamped "16:36 UT" - 2007 KW2

MPEC 2007-K36 - "16:36 UT" - 2007 KW2

• K07K02W   2007 KW2 (small asteroid, H=22.4 ~112m) was discovered at 0930 UT 21 May by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), which observed it at May 21.40-42p4. The discovery was confirmed by Lindenberg Obs. (May 21.86p4), Remanzacco Obs. (May 21.89-90p3), Bergen-Enkheim Obs. (May 21.91-93p6), Farra d'Isonzo Obs. (May 21.92-93p3), Altschwendt Obs. (May 21.94-96p4), Sabino Canyon Obs. (May 22.24-26p4), the Mt. Lemmon Survey (MLS) (May 22.33-35p4 & 23.40-42p4), New Millennium Obs. (May 22.89-92p10), and Great Shefford Obs. (May 23.08-09p3).

MPEC 2007-K35 - "16:31 UT" - 2007 KV2

• K07K02V   2007 KV2 (risk-listed, Earth MOID=3.0 LD, H=24.8 ~37m) was discovered at 0830 UT 21 May by CSS, which observed it at May 21.35-38p4. The discovery was confirmed by Astronomical Research Obs. (ARO) (May 22.23p3), MLS (May 22.27-29p4), and Great Shefford Obs. (May 23.07p2).

<< DOU on 23 May '07 >>  MPEC 2007-K34 - "06:09 UT" - Daily Orbit Update

• K07J35J   2007 JJ35 (i=56.0°, arc=8 days, H=18.5 ~676m) from Bisei Spaceguard Center (Bisei) (May 19.57-58p5) and Greiner Research Obs. (May 22.24-25p7)
• K07H44F   2007 HF44 (arc=24 days, H=19.2 ~490m) from MLS (April 23.31-33p3)
• K07F42V   2007 FV42 (arc=63 days, H=17.8 ~933m) from Bisei (May 17.66-71p9) and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (May 22.62-64p10)
• K07F01K   2007 FK1 (arc=66 days, H=20.2 ~309m) from Bisei (May 4.53-54p3) and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (May 22.65-66p8)
• K05U00K   2005 UK (i=54.4°, arc=4 opp, H=17.4 ~1.12 km) from Desert Moon Obs. (May 22.13-14p2)
• K05A13D   2005 AD13 (arc=2 opp, H=17.9 ~891m) from Greiner Research Obs. (May 22.31-35p3) and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (May 22.67-68p5)
• K04Y32J   2004 YJ32 (arc=5 opp, H=16.3 ~1.86 km) from MLS (May 22.24-26p4)
• K04S09T   2004 ST9 (arc=2 opp, H=18.1 ~812m) from Greiner Research Obs. (May 22.26-27p4)
• K02K04F   2002 KF4 (i=37.2°, Q=4.571 AU, arc=3 opp, H=17.3 ~1.17 km) from Bisei (May 20.54-57p9), Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (May 22.58-61p8), and Eschenberg Obs. (May 22.84-85p7)
• K02A11N   2002 AN11 (arc=2 opp, H=18.2 ~776m) from New Millennium Obs. (2006 Dec. 13.91p1)
• K02A02C   2002 AC2 (i=58.9°, arc=4 opp, H=16.5 ~1.70 km) from Greiner Research Obs. (May 22.28-29p4) and Desert Moon Obs. (May 22.37-38p3)
• J98U01L   1998 UL1 (i=42.0°, arc=5 opp, H=16.6 ~1.62 km) from Bisei (May 4.49-50p4)
• J88P00A   1988 PA (arc=3 opp, H=17.6 ~1.02 km) from Desert Moon Obs. (May 22.40-44p3)
• F4007   154007 2002 BY from CSS (May 22.14-16p4)
• F2895   152895 2000 CQ101 from Bisei (May 4.48-49p6)
• E5656   145656 4788 P-L from Bisei (May 4.52-53p3) and Santa Mama Obs. (May 20.87-91p3, 21.86p1 & 21.91p1)
• D7170   137170 1999 HF1 from Santa Mama Obs. (May 20.83-86p3, 21.84p1 & 21.88p1)
• D7084   137084 1998 XS16 from New Millennium Obs. (2006 Dec. 12.91p1)
• D6900   136900 1998 HL49 from CSS (May 22.17-18p4) and MLS (May 22.17-20p4)
• 86829   86829 2000 GR146 from Bisei (May 2.49-51p16 & 4.56p5), Red Barn Obs. (May 20.20-24p4), Santa Mama Obs. (May 20.89-93p3, 21.85p1 & 21.90p1), and CSS (May 22.20-22p4)
• 16834   16834 1997 WU22 from New Millennium Obs. (2006 Dec. 13.91p1 & 2006 Dec. 14.96p1)
• 08035   8035 1992 TB from Andrushivka Obs. (2006 Sept. 15.80-81p2)

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Observers  on 23 May '07

Nineteen observing facilities appeared in this day's MPECs.

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Impact Risk Monitoring  on 23 May '07

Legend: VI# = VI count, Prob Cum = cumulative probability, PS Cum/Max = cumulative/maximum Palermo Scale, TS = Torino Scale

For a list of all risk-rated objects recently in view, see our ephemerides page.

An impact solution, also known as a "virtual impactor" (VI), is not a prediction but rather a possibility derived from an orbit calculation that cannot be eliminated yet based on the existing data. Elimination can come quickly with just a little further observation or may take weeks or months, sometimes years. Once superceded or eliminated, a former impact solution has zero relevance to an object's risk. See Jon Giorgini's "Understanding Risk Pages" for more about all this.

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Chronology  on 23 May '07

Times are UTC for when the items were noted by Major News.