What astronomy job does this chap have? (And does he have to change those 28 tires?) He's driving a 130-ton vehicle designed to precisely position the more than five-dozen 115-ton radio antennas of the reconfigurable Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). There may be little need for the windshield wipers, however, since ALMA is located in a high Chilean desert described as the "driest place on Earth." Copyright ESO.
Contents on 1 August '07
- Minor-Object News -- four items
- Minor-Object Science -- three papers
- IAU Minor Planet Center
- NEOCP Activity -- two listings: 1 new, 1 updated
- New MPECs -- two MPECs
- Observers -- nine observing facilities
- Impact Risk Monitoring -- nothing to report
- Chronology
Resources:
- Consolidated Risk Tables - CRT page
- Ephemerides for risk-rated objects
- Ephemerides for small asteroids
The latest news: framed access (best), RSS news feed (flags updates), or redirection - Note: A/CC has a main Web site and a backup site.
Navigation tips: Use the << and >> arrows on the menus for each regular section (Observers, Risks, etc.) to move to the previous and next day's news for that section. Use the Index menu item to access specific days this year through a calendar interface. And use the all-up news archive to access news from any time since A/CC began in early 2002. To keep track of what's new each day, watch the Chronology section.
Minor-Object News on 1 August '07
- "Outbound at 7 AU," NASA New Horizons mission 1 Aug. - Quote: "On average, we travel about a third of an astronomical unit each month, or roughly a million miles per day. So, as August begins, we're nearing the halfway point in the Jupiter-to-Saturn leg of our journey... [Since] June 27, we've been in hibernation except for a brief, nine-day wakeup that began on July 12. The highlight of the mid-July wakeup period was the opening of the solar occultation port (SOCC) on the Alice UV spectrometer. This was the last of the seven instrument aperture doors we opened... Other activities [included] a data dump of the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter's memory." - Note: This URL is temporary.
- "Rochester rocket man leads 3.2 billion-mile trip," Rochester Post-Bulletin 1 Aug. - Quote: "Mark Brown is technical director for NASA's Dawn mission ... to visit the dwarf planet Ceres and massive asteroid Vesta... Brown has worked on other projects, such as Galileo and Cassini, but Dawn is the big ball of wax, said his mother."
- "Scientists positive there's negativity in space," ABC Australia 1 Aug. - Quote: "Two teams of astronomers have identified the signal of a new negatively charged molecule in space, only the third found in the cosmos. By contrast, researchers have found about 130 neutral and 12 positively charged molecules in space."
- "Giant truck set for sky-high task," BBC 30 July - Quote: "[The ALMA site] lies at 5,000m -- about half the cruising altitude of a 747. Because of the low oxygen content of the air at 5,000m, [telescope transporter] operators will need to wear portable oxygen canisters. The backrests of the driver seats are shaped to allow the driver to wear his oxygen tank while driving." - Note: See an image above and links to more info.
Minor-Object Science on 1 August '07
- "The Formation of the Oort Cloud in Open Cluster Environments" by Kaib, Nathan A. with Thomas Quinn, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 1 Aug. - Quote: "We study the influence of the initial stellar environment on the formation and current structure of the Oort cloud. To do this, we have run four different simulations of the formation of the Oort Cloud for 4.5 Gyrs, each containing 20,000 particles. In each simulation, the solar system spends its first 100 Myrs in a different open cluster environment before transitioning to its current field environment. We find that, compared to forming in the field environment, the inner Oort Cloud is preferentially loaded with comets while the Sun resides in the open cluster and that most of this material remains locked in the interior of the cloud for the next 4.4 Gyrs. On the other hand, the outer portions of the Oort Cloud in each of the simulations are all similar. Depending on the initial stellar density of the cluster environment, the internal structure of the present day Oort Cloud will vary widely."
- "Secondary resonances of co-orbital motions" by Erdi, B. with I. Nagy, Z. Sandor & 2 others, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 1 Aug. - Quote: "The size distribution of the stability region around the Lagrangian point L4 is investigated in the elliptic restricted three-body problem as the function of the mass parameter and the orbital eccentricity of the primaries. It is shown that there are minimum zones in the size distribution of the stability regions, and these zones are connected with secondary resonances between the frequencies of librational motions around L4. The results can be applied to hypothetical Trojan planets for predicting values of the mass parameter and the eccentricity for which such objects can be expected or their existence is less probable."
- "Testing the Disk Regulation Paradigm with Spitzer Observations. II. A Clear Signature of Star-Disk Interaction in NGC 2264 and the Orion Nebula Cluster" by Cieza, L. with N. Baliber, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 1 Aug. - Quote: "The mechanism by which spin-up is regulated as young stars contract has been one of the longest-standing problems in star formation... In this paper, we use the unprecedented disk identification capability of the Spitzer Space Telescope to test the star-disk interaction paradigm in two young clusters, NGC 2264 and the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC)... Our results represent the strongest evidence to date that star-disk interaction regulates the angular momentum of these young stars. This study will make possible quantitative comparisons between the observed period distributions of stars with and without a disk and numerical models of the angular momentum evolution of young stars."
NEOCP Activity on 1 August '07
The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 2 listings: 1 new, 1 updated
When last checked at 2358 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had one new and one updated listing. Of these, one was a "one nighter."
To learn how observers use the NEOCP, see Suno Observatory's Practical guide on how to observe NEOCP object.
New MPECs on 1 August '07
Minor Planet Electronic Circulars
As of last check at 2358 UTC, there have been two MPECs issued today from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- MPEC 2007-P01 time-stamped "03:20 UT" - 2003 CG11 - see below
- MPEC 2007-P02 time-stamped "06:05 UT" - Daily Orbit Update
<< DOU on 1 Aug. '07 >> MPEC 2007-P02 - "06:05 UT" - Daily Orbit Update
- K07N05C 2007 NC5 (q=0.278 AU, Q=4.608 AU, arc=28 days, H=17.9 ~891m) from Eschenberg Obs. (July 31.89-90p3) and Guidestar Obs. (July 31.90-91p3)
- K07N01L 2007 NL1 (arc=15 days, H=21.7 ~155m) from Magdalena Ridge Obs. (MRO) (July 18.39-42p8)
- K07N00Q 2007 NQ (arc=21 days, H=19.4 ~446m) from Verona Obs. (July 31.83-85p4)
- K07M24B 2007 MB24 (i=47.7°, arc=33 days, H=18.2 ~776m) from Verona Obs. (July 14.85-88p4)
- K07M13L 2007 ML13 (arc=39 days, H=20.2 ~309m) from Astronomical Research Obs. (ARO) (July 31.08-09p3)
- K07M00H 2007 MH (arc=36 days, H=20.9 ~224m) from Verona Obs. (July 13.92p2)
- K07L32R 2007 LR32 (arc=68 days, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from Eschenberg Obs. (July 31.83-84p3) and Greiner Research Obs. (Aug. 1.13-18p15)
- K07L15A 2007 LA15 (arc=49 days, H=19.5 ~426m) from Eschenberg Obs. (July 31.85-87p6)
- K07H03W 2007 HW3 (Q=4.273 AU, arc=104 days, H=20.5 ~269m) from ARO (July 31.18-20p3)
- K07G03S 2007 GS3 (arc=99 days, H=19.3 ~467m) from MRO (July 18.44p3)
- K07F00A 2007 FA (arc=124 days, H=20.2 ~309m) from MRO (July 18.45p3)
- K07DA3T 2007 DT103 (arc=156 days, H=18.8 ~589m) from Schiaparelli Obs. (July 29.99p4), Eschenberg Obs. (July 31.87-88p15), and Guidestar Obs. (July 31.89p4)
- K07D41A 2007 DA41 (arc=3 opp, H=17.5 ~1.07 km) from Guidestar Obs. (July 31.92-94p3)
- K07D40Z 2007 DZ40 (Q=4.840 AU, arc=159 days, H=18.5 ~676m) from ARO (July 31.11p1)
- K07C26K 2007 CK26 (arc=2 opp, H=19.1 ~513m) from Verona Obs. (July 31.87-88p4)
- K05O03E 2005 OE3 (arc=2 opp, H=20.3 ~295m) from MRO (July 18.45p4)
- 87309 87309 2000 QP from Eschenberg Obs. (July 31.91-92p6)
- 53426 53426 1999 SL5 from Guidestar Obs. (July 31.86-88p3)
MPEC 2007-P01 - "03:20 UT" - 2003 CG11
- K03C11G 2003 CG11 (Q=4.491 AU, Earth MOID=8.7 LD, H=20.5 ~269m) from NEAT's Mt. Palomar telescope (2003 Jan. 27.53-54p2), Great Shefford Obs. (July 31.10-11p3 & Aug. 1.10-11p3), and Schiaparelli Obs. (Aug. 1.08p2)
Observers on 1 August '07
Nine observing facilities appear in today's MPECs.
| H55 | Astronomical Research Obs. in Illinois, 3 in MPEC 2007-P02 -- 2007 ML13, 2007 HW3, 2007 DZ40 |
| 151 | Eschenberg Obs. in Switzerland, 5 in MPEC 2007-P02 -- 2007 NC5, 2007 LR32, 2007 LA15, 2007 DT103, 87309 |
| J95 | Great Shefford Obs. in England, 1 in MPEC 2007-P01 -- 2003 CG11 |
| H51 | Greiner Research Obs. in Wisconsin, 1 in MPEC 2007-P02 -- 2007 LR32 |
| A17 | Guidestar Obs. in Germany, 4 in MPEC 2007-P02 -- 2007 NC5, 2007 DT103, 2007 DA41, 53426 |
| H01 | Magdalena Ridge Obs. in New Mexico, 4 in MPEC 2007-P02 -- 2007 NL1, 2007 GS3, 2007 FA, 2005 OE3 |
| 644 | NEAT's Mt. Palomar telescope in southern California, 1 in MPEC 2007-P01 -- 2003 CG11 |
| 204 | Schiaparelli Obs. in Italy, 2 in MPECs 2007-P01 & 2007-P02 -- 2007 DT103, 2003 CG11 |
| A48 | Verona Obs. in Italy, 4 in MPEC 2007-P02 -- 2007 NQ, 2007 MB24, 2007 MH, 2007 CK26 |
Impact Risk Monitoring on 1 August '07
At last check (NEODyS and JPL at 2358 UTC) there was no risk monitoring news to report yet today. See the CRT for activity in the last month.
Chronology on 1 August '07
Times are UTC for when the items were noted or added by Major News.
| 1604 | Added link to news story, "Scientists positive there's negativity in space" Added link to news story, "Outbound at 7 AU" Added link to news story, "Rochester rocket man leads 3.2 billion-mile trip" |
| 1424 | Grabbed MPEC 2007-P02 - Daily Orbit Update - see above |
| 0512 | Added link to news story, "Giant truck set for sky-high task" |
| 0456 | Added MOS paper, "Secondary resonances of co-orbital motions" - see above Added MOS paper, "Testing the Disk Regulation Paradigm with Spitzer Observations. II. A Clear Signature of Star-Disk Interaction in NGC 2264 and the Orion Nebula Cluster" - see above Added MOS paper, "The Formation of the Oort Cloud in Open Cluster Environments" - see above |
| 0451 | Grabbed MPEC 2007-P01 - 2003 CG11 - see above |
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