Artist's concept of a toroidal pre-planetary disk forming around an embryonic star such as NGC 1333-IRAS 4B, which is reported today to be undergoing an ice onslaught. See more below. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt.
Contents on 29 August '07
- Minor-Object News -- six items
- Minor-Object Science -- none yet today
- IAU Minor Planet Center
- NEOCP Activity -- three listings: 1 new, 2 updated
- New MPECs -- one MPEC
- Observers -- eight 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 29 August '07
- "Water Vapor Seen 'Raining Down' on Young Star System," Spitzer Space Telescope 29 Aug. - Quote: "NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times inside the collapsing nest of a forming star system. Astronomers say the water vapor is pouring down from the system's natal cloud and smacking into a dusty disk where planets are thought to form... [Dan] Watson and his colleagues studied 30 of the youngest known stellar embryos using Spitzer's infrared spectrograph [and] found only one, NGC 1333-IRAS 4B, with a whopping signature of water vapor... [Why only one? Most] likely because NGC 1333-IRAS 4B is in just the right orientation for Spitzer to view its dense core. Also, this particular watery phase of a star's life is short-lived and hard to catch." - Note: See an artist's concept of the pre-planetary disk above. {permalink}
- "Supersonic 'Rain' Falls on Newborn Star," Univ. of Rochester 29 Aug. - Quote: "Dan Watson ... believes he and his colleagues are the first to see a short-lived stage of protoplanetary disk formation, and the manner in which a planetary system's supply of water arrives from the natal envelope within which its parent star originally formed... Among the details derived so far are the rate of "rainfall" onto the disk -- about 23 Earth masses per year... [The] 'puddle' on the disk's surface [at -153 degrees Fahrenheit is] about an Earth's mass worth of material [that if] centered on the Sun, its perimeter would be just beyond the orbit of Pluto. Results such as this will help astronomers assess the early planet-forming potential of IRAS4B's disk, and by inference learn about the earliest stages of our solar system's life." {permalink}
- "Star System Soaked With 'Rain'," Space.com 29 Aug. - Quote: "Water is abundant throughout our universe, existing as ice or gas around stars and in the space between stars, but rarely as a liquid." {permalink}
- "Planet Formation Mystery Solved," Space.com 29 Aug. - Note: To summarize, the theoretical problem is that boulders accreting from dust in a protoplanetary disk should meet wind resistance from the gas in that disk, causing them to slow and fall into the central star instead of forming rocky planets. A new computer model indicates that turbulence in the gas may serve to gather and protect boulders that together can overcome the drag and survive to form planets by collapse from their mutual gravity. {permalink}
- "Search for Meteorite in the Altai Continues," Russia InfoCentre 29 Aug. - Quote: "Another expedition arrived to the Altai Republic to search for meteorite, which has fallen this January... [They] will visit Uglovsky and Egorievsky districts." {permalink}
- "Vesta Visits Jupiter," Sky & Telescope 28 Aug. - Quote: "The pair will fit nicely in a single field of view through most telescopes at low magnification. And you should be able to see Vesta through steadily supported binoculars." {permalink}
NEOCP Activity on 29 August '07
The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 3 listings: 1 new, 2 updated
When last checked at 2355 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had one new and two updated listings. Of these, one was a "one nighter."
To learn how observers use the NEOCP, see the Practical guide on how to observe NEOCP object by Birtwhistle et al. at Suno Observatory.
New MPECs on 29 August '07
Minor Planet Electronic Circulars
As of last check at 2355 UTC, there has been one MPEC issued today from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
<< DOU on 29 Aug. '07 >> MPEC 2007-Q41 - "06:06 UT" - Daily Orbit Update
- K07P28F 2007 PF28 (arc=13 days, H=19.3 ~467m) from Panker Obs. (Aug. 24.01-02p5), Madonna di Dossobuono Obs. (Aug. 27.84p3), Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 27.92-94p9), and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (Aug. 28.47-48p13)
- K07P08E 2007 PE8 (arc=18 days, H=19.5 ~426m) from Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (Aug. 28.48-49p8) and Dark Roseanne Obs. (Aug. 29.03-04p3)
- K07L32R 2007 LR32 (arc=95 days, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from Bolzaneto Obs. (Aug. 27.84-86p3), Castelmartini Obs. (Aug. 27.92-94p5), and Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. (Aug. 28.50-51p4)
- K04O11T 2004 OT11 (arc=3 opp, H=17.3 ~1.17 km) from Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 27.79-83p9)
- K02N04N 2002 NN4 (arc=4 opp, H=20.0 ~339m) from Castelmartini Obs. (Aug. 27.82p2), Madonna di Dossobuono Obs. (Aug. 27.85-86p3), and Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 27.88-91p8)
- J99F00A 1999 FA (arc=2 opp, H=20.6 ~257m) from Lulin Minor Bodies Tracking (LIMIT) (Aug. 27.80p3)
- 53426 53426 1999 SL5 from Panker Obs. (Aug. 23.90-92p5) and Santa Mama Obs. (Aug. 27.84-87p8)
Observers on 29 August '07
Eight observing facilities appear in today's MPEC.
| Code | Observer / observatory |
|---|---|
| A88 | Bolzaneto Obs. in Italy, 1 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 2007 LR32 |
| 160 | Castelmartini Obs. in Italy, 2 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 2007 LR32, 2002 NN4 |
| H98 | Dark Roseanne Obs. in Connecticut, 1 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 2007 PE8 |
| 379 | Hamamatsu-Yuto Obs. in Japan, 3 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 2007 PF28, 2007 PE8, 2007 LR32 |
| D35 | Lulin Minor Bodies Tracking in Taiwan, 1 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 1999 FA |
| 560 | Madonna di Dossobuono Obs. in Italy, 2 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 2007 PF28, 2002 NN4 |
| A32 | Panker Obs. in Germany, 2 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 2007 PF28, 53426 |
| B38 | Santa Mama Obs. in Italy, 4 in MPEC 2007-Q41 -- 2007 PF28, 2004 OT11, 2002 NN4, 53426 |
Impact Risk Monitoring on 29 August '07
At last check (NEODyS and JPL at 2355 UTC) there was no risk monitoring news to report yet today. See the CRT for activity in the last month.
Chronology on 29 August '07
Times are UTC for when the items were noted or added by Major News.
| 2008 | Added link to news story, "Supersonic 'Rain' Falls on Newborn Star" - see above Added link to news story, "Planet Formation Mystery Solved" - see above Added link to news story, "Star System Soaked With 'Rain'" - see above Added link to news story, "Water Vapor Seen 'Raining Down' on Young Star System" - see above |
| 1708 | Added link to news story, "Search for Meteorite in the Altai Continues" - see above Added link to news story, "Vesta Visits Jupiter" - see above |
| 1525 | Grabbed MPEC 2007-Q41 - Daily Orbit Update - see above |
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