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Contents  on 7 September '07

• Minor-Object News -- one item
• Minor-Object Science -- six papers
• IAU Minor Planet Center
  • NEOCP Activity -- one listing: 1 new
  • New MPECs -- two MPECs
  • Observers -- fourteen observing facilities
• Impact Risk Monitoring -- three objects reported
• 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.

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Minor-Object News  on 7 September '07

• "Astronomers eager to add to Sky in Google Earth," UC Berkeley News 6 Sept. - Quote: "VOEventNet ... was developed ... to automate astronomy so that new observations are relayed within seconds or minutes to robotic telescopes that can quickly and automatically swivel to observe them. Today, such discoveries are announced to astronomers through email or fax 'telegrams' from the International Astronomical Union, often delayed for days while referees assess the event. VOEventNet would eliminate the middlemen... As of this week, [Joshua] Bloom and his team began feeding Google a mash-up of [various astronomic events including] asteroids and optical transients from the Palomar-Quest survey." - Note: The Palomar-Quest Sky Survey asteroid discovery targets are available as an HTML table, RSS XML feed, and in real-time via Jabber. {permalink}

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Minor-Object Science  on 7 September '07

• "Sky in Google Earth: The Next Frontier in Astronomical Data Discovery and Visualization" by Scranton, Ryan with Andrew Connolly, Simon Krughoff & 6 others, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 7 Sept. - Quote: "Sky can provide the general public as well as professional and amateur astronomers alike with a wealth of information for use in education and research. We provide here a brief introduction to Sky in Google Earth, focusing on its extensible environment, how it may be integrated into the research process and how it can bring astronomical research to a broader community ... the embodiment of a virtual telescope." {permalink}
• "The Dust Trail of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko" by Kelley, Michael S. with William T. Reach & David J. Lien, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 7 Sept. - Quote: "We report the detection of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's dust trail and nucleus in 24 micron Spitzer Space Telescope images taken February 2004. The dust trail is not found in optical Palomar images taken June 2003... Together, our observations and simulations suggest grains 100 micron and larger in size dominate the total mass ejected from the comet... Assuming the trail is comprised solely of 1 mm radius grains, we compute a low probability ... of a trail grain impacting with [the Rosetta spacecraft in 2014] during approach and orbit insertion." - Note: See another paper and a news link on this subject two days ago. {permalink}
• "Water in Comet 2/2003 K4 (LINEAR) with Spitzer" by Woodward, Charles E. with Michael S. Kelley, Dominique Bockelee-Morvan & R.D. Gehrz, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 7 Sept. - Quote: "We present sensitive 5.5 to 7.6 micron spectra of comet C/2003 K4 (LINEAR) obtained on 16 July 2004... The spectra do not show any evidence for emission from PAHs and carbonate minerals, in contrast to results reported for comets 9P/Tempel 1 and C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp). However, residual emission is observed near 7.3 micron the origin of which remains unidentified." {permalink}
• "Survival of icy grains in debris discs. The role of photosputtering" by Grigorieva, Anna with Ph. Thebault, P. Artymowicz & A. Brandeker, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 7 Sept. - Quote: "We put theoretical constraints on the presence and survival of icy grains in debris discs. Particular attention is paid to UV sputtering of water ice, which has so far not been studied in detail in this context. We present a photosputtering model based on available experimental and theoretical studies... We show that, with the possible exception of M stars, photosputtering cannot be neglected in calculations of icy grain lifetimes." {permalink}
• "Spitzer observations of the Orion OB1 association: disk census in the low mass stars" by Hernandez, Jesus with Nuria Calvet, C. Briceno & 6 others, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 7 Sept. - Quote: "Combining IRAC, MIPS and 2MASS photometry we place stars bearing disks in several classes: stars with optically thick disks (class II systems), stars with an inner transitional disks (transitional disk candidates) and stars with 'evolved disks'; the last exhibit smaller IRAC/MIPS excesses than class II systems. In all, we identify 1 transitional disk candidate in the 25 Orionis aggregate and 3 in the OB1b field; this represents ~10% of the disk bearing stars, indicating that the transitional disk phase can be relatively fast. We find that the frequency of disks is a function of the stellar mass, suggesting a maximum around stars with spectral type M0." {permalink}
• "The X-ray soft excess in classical T Tauri stars" by Guedel, M. with A. Telleschi, abstract & PDF at arXiv.org 7 Sept. - Quote: "The soft excess depends both on the presence of accretion streams in CTTS [classical T Tauri stars] and on magnetic activity. The gas may be shock-heated near the surface, although it may also be heated in the magnetospheric accretion funnels." {permalink}

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NEOCP Activity  on 7 September '07

The MPC's NEO Confirmation Page has 1 listing: 1 new

When last checked at 2354 UTC today, the Minor Planet Center's NEO discovery Confirmation Page (NEOCP) had one new listing. This was a "one nighter." So far Major News has counted a total of two objects listed on the NEOCP at some point today.

To learn how observers use the NEOCP, see the Practical guide on how to observe NEOCP object by Birtwhistle et al. at Suno Observatory.

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New MPECs  on 7 September '07

Minor Planet Electronic Circulars

As of last check at 2354 UTC, there have been two MPECs issued today from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• MPEC 2007-R30 time-stamped "06:07 UT" - Daily Orbit Update - see below
• MPEC 2007-R31 time-stamped "16:32 UT" - Comet 139P/Vaisala-Oterma

MPEC 2007-R31 - "16:32 UT" - Comet 139P/Vaisala-Oterma

• 0139P   139P/Vaisala-Oterma (q=3.403 AU, Q=5.629 AU, TP=2008 Apr. 19.34777 TT) from Buchloe Obs. (Aug. 13.03p1 & 14.94p1) and Vitebsk Obs. (Sept. 6.91-95p3)

<< DOU on 7 Sept. '07 >>  MPEC 2007-R30 - "06:07 UT" - Daily Orbit Update

• Observations of risk-listed objects
• K07R02F   2007 RF2 (arc=1 day, H=20.4 ~282m) from Jim Young via Table Mtn. Obs. (Sept. 6.46-47p4)
• K07R01S   2007 RS1 (small asteroid, arc=1 day, H=30.9 ~2m) from Great Shefford Obs. (Sept. 4.83-86p6)
• K07R01E   2007 RE1 (almost small, Q=4.273 AU, arc=4 days, H=21.9 ~141m) from Young/Table Mtn. (Sept. 6.42-44p4)
• Observations of previously risk-listed objects
• K07R01J   2007 RJ1 (small asteroid, arc=3 days, H=25.1 ~32m) from Young/Table Mtn. (Sept. 6.37-41p4)
• Observations of small asteroids (H>22.0)
• K07R01H   2007 RH1 (arc=3 days, H=22.6 ~102m) from Young/Table Mtn. (Sept. 6.44-45p4)
• Observations of other objects
• K07R01D   2007 RD1 (arc=4 days, H=21.6 ~162m) from Young/Table Mtn. (Sept. 6.40-41p4)
• K07Q02K   2007 QK2 (arc=15 days, H=20.6 ~257m) from Santa Mama Obs. (Sept. 5.87-89p4)
• K07Q02A   2007 QA2 (arc=20 days, H=20.8 ~234m) from Stia Obs. (Sept. 3.79-80p3 & 5.80-82p5)
• K07P11U   2007 PU11 (Q=4.384 AU, arc=3 opp, H=16.3 ~1.86 km) from Iluro Obs. (Sept. 6.05-06p3)
• K07P06P   2007 PP6 (q=0.361 AU, arc=28 days, H=17.1 ~1.29 km) from Shenton Park Obs. (Sept. 6.52-53p2)
• K07P00Q   2007 PQ (arc=32 days, H=20.6 ~257m) from Stia Obs. (Sept. 5.84p3)
• K07L32R   2007 LR32 (arc=103 days, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from Bolzaneto Obs. (Sept. 5.84-87p3)
• K07G03S   2007 GS3 (arc=148 days, H=19.3 ~467m) from the FTP education program via Faulkes Telescope North (Sept. 6.51p2)
• K07F42V   2007 FV42 (arc=165 days, H=17.9 ~891m) from program code {|} via La Silla (Aug. 13.32-38p12)
• K03SM2W   2003 SW222 (arc=3 opp, H=17.2 ~1.23 km) from Santa Mama Obs. (Sept. 5.85-87p6)
• F4453   154453 2003 CJ11 from New Millennium Obs. (April 22.86-88p3)
• F4007   154007 2002 BY from New Millennium Obs. (April 22.84-88p3)
• D8883   138883 2000 YL29 from Santa Mama Obs. (Sept. 5.78-82p8)
• A5140   105140 2000 NL10 from Santa Mama Obs. (Sept. 5.83-84p5)
• 86039   86039 1999 NC43 from New Millennium Obs. (April 22.84-87p3)
• 04257   4257 Ubasti (1987 QA) from New Millennium Obs. (April 23.96-01p4)
• 04183   4183 Cuno (1959 LM) from LONEOS (Sept. 6.21p1 & 6.25-28p2)
• 00433   433 Eros (1898 DQ) from geocentric occultation observation (1975 Jan. 24.02p1)

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Observers  on 7 September '07

Fourteen observing facilities appear in today's MPECs.

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Impact Risk Monitoring  on 7 September '07

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

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 this.

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Chronology  on 7 September '07

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