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Selected links to asteroid, comet, and meteor news - October 2006
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2 November 2006
Notes: 1) Many of these links are also carried on A/CC's RSS news feed and may appear there first.
2) News release links are fairly stable but news media links often aren't, so grab pages now you might need later.
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[ September 2006 News | News Archive | November 2006 News ]
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31 October 2006 Tuesday |
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30 October 2006 Monday |
- "Rocked by $1m space theft," Daily Telegraph 30 Oct. - Note: Binya meteorite stolen. See more about this object here (may not view well in Firefox browsers).
KEYWORDS: meteorite theft
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29 October 2006 Sunday |
- "'Meteor' caused mystery explosion," BBC 29 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 26 England event
- "Plotting Pluto's Comeback" (temp link), Newsweek dated 6 Nov., posted 29 Oct. - Quote: "Although the IAU isn't scheduled to meet again until 2009, plans are being laid for an ad hoc conference of astronomers next year ... that will almost certainly restore Pluto's status... [This is] a bit like holding a conference to decide whether tomatoes are a fruit or a vegetable. But there is pride at stake."
KEYWORDS: IAU planet definition
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28 October 2006 Saturday |
- "2006 Orionid Shower," Cloudbait Observatory 23 Oct. - Quote: "This is a composite image of 230 meteors collected on the evenings of October 18-22."
KEYWORDS: all-sky meteor camera, Orionids
- "Occultation by (253) Mathilde, 2006 October 15," posted by David Dunham/IOTA 16 Oct. - Note: See his Occultation Updates page for links to more-successful shape determinations this month of star shadows cast by less-famous and less-known Main Belt asteroids 25 Phocaea and 200 Dynamene, and much more.
KEYWORDS: NEAR asteroid mission
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27 October 2006 Friday |
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25 October 2006 Wednesday |
- SpaceWeather.com is reporting on Oct. 25th that comet SWAN may have become naked-eye visible.
KEYWORDS: C/2006 M4 (SWAN)
- "Star Ends Infancy Abruptly," Subaru Telescope 23 Oct.
KEYWORDS: HD 141569A planetary disk
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24 October 2006 Tuesday |
- "Russia can build anti-asteroid systems if necessary -- official" (temp link), ITAR-TASS 24 Oct. - Editor's note: The bit in this story about "Asteroid 2907, which ... may ram the Earth on December 16, 2880" appears to be a reference to 29075 1950 DA, which has a well-determined but slim impact possibility for 16 March 2880. Such sloppiness in fact checking is typical of Russian news media tabloid-style stories on supposed Earth impact risks, reporting that may get picked up by reputable news online sites such as The Times here via AFP and The Independent here via SAPA/AFP, but rarely merits linking at A/CC.
KEYWORDS: hazard mitigation, Russia
- "Hitch hike to Mars inside an asteroid," New Scientist 23 Oct. - Note: For more about the need for radiation protection on Mars missions, see How Safe is Travel to Mars? at NASA Astrobiology Magazine on 23 Oct.
KEYWORDS: minor object development, NIAC
- "Geologists discover 'impact' crater in Rann of Kutch," PTI at The Navhind Times 23 Oct. - Quote: "Indian geologists claim to have discovered a possible impact crater in Kutch district of Gujarat dating back to the Vedic period."
KEYWORDS: India
- "Asteroid deflection is a possibility," SABC News 21 Oct. - Note: This story is also here at The Independent 22 Oct.
KEYWORDS: ESA Don Quixote mission, hazard mitigation
- "Re-Teaching The Map Of The Solar System," AP at CBS News 21 Oct. - Quote: "Governor teaches her students about the solar system by having them measure and label orbits of each planet on a long roll of toilet paper. On one end is the sun; 250 sheets away is Pluto's outer orbit."
KEYWORDS: IAU planet definition
- "Magdalena Ridge Observatory to Officially Open," New Mexico Tech 20 Oct. - Quote: "Initial research being planned for the MRO 2.4-meter telescope will [start] with a study of small bodies in our own Solar System, particularly near-Earth objects such as asteroids."
KEYWORDS: optical interferometer
- "UCLA scientist sees dream take flight," UCLA The Daily Bruin 20 Oct.- Quote: "We'll be able to see if there are any dark, stealth asteroids out there."
KEYWORDS: risk monitoring, space-based astronomy, WISE observatory
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23 October 2006 Monday |
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19 October 2006 Thursday |
- "Mauna Kea telescopes knocked around," AP at The Honolulu Advertiser 19 Oct., also here at MSNBC on 19 Oct. - Quote: "Keck's engineers will have to recalibrate both telescopes to account for the seismic shifts that moved the Keck I telescope more than 1/8 inch and the Keck II telescope more than 1 inch."
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 15 Hawaiian earthquake
- "A Curiouser and Curiouser KBO," Sky & Telescope 18 Oct. - Report: 2003 EL61 has two satellites and is elongated (perhaps longer on its long axis than 136199 Eris is wide), appears to be solid rock, and has a family of perhaps five or more other KBOs.
KEYWORDS: KBO spectroscopy
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18 October 2006 Wednesday |
- "Built-in guards protect instruments on Mauna Kea from serious damage," Honolulu Star-Bulletin 18 Oct. - Quote: "[The 2.2-meter UH telescope] won't be usable for three or four days at least."
- "Status of UKIRT post-earthquake," U.K. IR Telescope 17 Oct. - Quote: "Weather is still not allowing us to open and check pointing."
- "Earthquake Aftermath at CFHT," Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope 15-17 Oct. - Quote: "We don't expect to have anything operational for at least three more nights."
- "Earthquake Report," NASA IRTF 17 Oct. - Quote: "We just opened up this morning (Oct. 17) for observations of Saturn and are operating normally."
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 15 Hawaiian earthquake
- "FTN and FTS status - Faulkes Telescope Project 18 Oct.
KEYWORDS: robotic telescopes
- "Meteorites' value astronomical," KVOA-TV Tucson 18 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Marvin Killgore, Southwest Meteorite Center
- "Scientist who found '10th planet' discusses downgrading of Pluto," Stanford Report 18 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 136199 Eris (2003 UB313), IAU planet definition, Michael Brown
- "SOFIA Reborn: High-Flying Observatory Faces Years of Flight Tests," Space.com 18 Oct.
KEYWORDS: airborne astronomy
- "Far More Than a Meteor Killed Dinos," GSA 17 Oct. - Quote: "The Chicxulub impact may, in fact, have been the lesser and earlier of a series of meteors and volcanic eruptions that pounded life on Earth for more than 500,000 years."
KEYWORDS: K-T boundary
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17 October 2006 Tuesday |
- "Keck Sees Past the Quake," Science Now 17 Oct.
- Hawaiian observatory post-earthquake status reports
- James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea 17 Oct. update: "Foul weather last night (Monday) prevented any observing, but most systems appear to be operational."
- Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea 17 Oct. update: "After two days of assessment by staff working emergency shifts, visual inspection has shown that the Subaru telescope avoided major damage from the earthquakes that shook Hawaii."
- Gemini North on Mauna Kea, 16-17 Oct.: "It is still impossible to predict when we will return to normal operation."
- Faulkes Telescope North on Haleakala 16 Oct.: "[The] telescope and systems appeared to have survived intact."
- W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, 16 Oct.: "As of Monday, officials estimated it would take a few days to return Keck I to operational status. It will take at least this long to restore Keck II functionality."
- Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea 16 Oct.: "It is likely that we might be out of commission for some time." (Note: This report has since been revised and put here with later updates.)
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 15 Hawaiian earthquake
- "Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Expected in November," Space.com 17 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Leonids
- "Scientists find unusual meteorite in Kansas field," AP at MSNBC 16 Oct. - "[The] scientific experts at the site were able to debunk prevailing wisdom that the spectacular Brenham meteorite fall occurred 20,000 years ago. Its location in the Pleistocene epoch soil layer puts that date closer to 10,000 years ago."
KEYWORDS: pallasite, Steve Arnold
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16 October 2006 Monday |
- A/CC hasn't picked up any official statements or news media reports yet that indicate anything about how well the observatories on Mauna Kea and Haleakala have come through yesterday's major earthquake. The University of Hawaii is back on line ("Earthquake update: All UH campuses are open for classes") and now also its Institute for Astronomy. Here are some general news links, including a timely piece from a day earlier about how the top of Mauna Kea, the world's tallest mountain from base to peak, will someday sink below sea level. The geologic term in play here is isostasy.
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 15 Hawaiian earthquake
- "Dancing Asteroid Mapped in Motion," Space.com 16 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 66391 1999 KW4, Arecibo, planetary radar
- "JHU Joins Consortium for Powerful New Telescope," The JHU Gazette 16 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Pan-STARRS, risk monitoring
- "From Ugly Duckling to Beautiful Swan," Sky & Telescope 16 Oct.
KEYWORDS: airborne astronomy, SOFIA
- "Images of Dwarf Planet Ceres," Keck Observatory 11 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 1 Ceres, infrared
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14 October 2006 Saturday |
- "Natural History Museum Blog Reveals Meteorite Search in Australia," 24 Hour Museum 13-14 Oct.
KEYWORDS: all-sky cameras, fireball lightning, Mundrabilla, Nullabar
- "Doubts cast on meteorite," Kansas City Star 14 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Brenham, Houston Museum of Natural Science, pallasite, Steve Arnold
- "NASA Says: 'Build It and Infrared Surprises Will Come'," NASA JPL 13 Oct. - Quote: "[WISE] is scheduled to launch into an Earth orbit in late 2009. It will spend seven months collecting data." The WISE Science page says "[Asteroids] absorb most of the sunlight that hits them and heat up to glow in the mid-infrared. WISE will be able to measure the diameters of more than 100,000 asteroids [and will also see] debris trails of comets [and] provide a complete inventory of nearby young stars and their dusty disks." Update: See more info above.
KEYWORDS: space-based astronomy, WISE observatory
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13 October 2006 Friday |
- "ISU professor in middle of the Pluto controversy," Des Moines Register 13 Oct.
KEYWORDS: IAU planet definition
- "Nearly Naked: Large swath of Pacific lacks seafloor sediment," 13-14 Oct. - Quote: "[Meteor] dust, which falls evenly over Earth's surface, may be more easily detectable in the bare zone than elsewhere."
KEYWORDS: South Pacific
- "Power restored to Hubble camera detector," AP at MSNBC 13 Oct.
KEYWORDS: HST
- "The Orionid Meteor Shower: See the Legacy of Halley's Comet," Space.com 13 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 1P/Halley, Orionids
- "Does world-record meteorite await unearthing in Kansas?" Kansas City Star 13 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Brenham, Hoba, pallasite, Steve Arnold
- "Cranbourne in star city bid," Star News Group 13 Oct. - Quote: "Cranbourne [Victoria] locals are pulling together to make their little patch on the third rock from the sun the meteorite capital of Australia."
KEYWORDS:
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12 October 2006 Thursday |
- "First detailed pictures of asteroid reveal bizarre system," Univ. of Michigan 12 Oct.
- "Binary Asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4," NASA JPL 12 Oct. - Quote from the linked info sheet: "The KW4 results have profound consequences for ideas about [hazard] mitigation ... because the physical nature of the primary component would make landing very difficult and the system's complex dynamics would make even simple maneuvering of spacecraft close to the bodies harrowing."
KEYWORDS: Arecibo, planetary radar, risk monitoring
- "Fire in the sky" (last item), Corvallis Gazette Times 12 Oct. - Note: This follows-up on a Sept. 15th item and reports that two more witnesses came forward regarding an event now described as happening "late in August 2006."
KEYWORDS: 2006 Aug. Oregon event
- "Saturn's Rings Show Evidence of a Modern-Day Collision," NASA JPL 11 Oct. - Quote: "Based on observations between 1995 and 2006, [a reconstructed timeline estimates] the collision occurred in 1984." See also a Sky & Telescope article from 12-13 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Cassini mission, D ring
- "A film of the heavens," Max Planck Institute at EurekAlert 11 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Pan-STARRS PS1, risk monitoring
- "Cometary Puzzles," Sky & Telescope 11 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 9P/Tempel 1, 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3, 81P/Wild 2, C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), HD 100546 planetary disk, comet breakups, Deep Impact mission, Stardust mission
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11 October 2006 Wednesday |
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10 October 2006 Tuesday |
- "In search of meteorites," Colorado Springs Gazette 10 Oct. - An expanded version of this article was posted as "Diamond in the Rough" on Oct. 11th.
- "October 1, 2006 Fireball" - Note: This Cloudbait Observatory page was updated 9 Oct. with a revised map and info about possibilities for meteorites resulting from this spectacular aerial event.
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 1 southwestern USA event
- "How the Distant World of Eris Caused Big Changes Here on Earth," VOA 10 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 136199 Eris (2003 UB313), IAU planet definition, Pluto
- "Why Doesn't Venus Have a Moon?" Sky & Telescope 10 Oct. - Quote: "[New models] suggest Venus was not only slammed with a rock large enough to form the Moon, the event happened at least twice... [The first moon] slowly spiraled away from the planet [and the second] merged with Venus in a dramatic, fatal encounter." Question: Where did that first moon go?
KEYWORDS: Earth-Moon system formation
- "City of Elko receives its own cosmic twin," Deseret News 10 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 80180 Elko (1999 VS), IAU namings
- "Prepare to meteor maker," The Northern Echo 10 Oct.
KEYWORDS: risk monitoring
- "Second Deep Space Manoeuvre," ESA Rosetta mission 9 Oct. - Status report: "The manoeuvre was executed on 29 September at 02:00 UTC."
KEYWORDS: Rosetta comet mission
- "Rebel Science: Lecture unveils DNA time capsules," Univ. of Nevada at Las Vegas The Rebel Yell 9 Oct. - Quote: "If halite formation/precipitation requires a body of evaporating water, when and where did this meteor, a supposed remnant from the solar system's formation, ever come into contact with mineralized water?"
KEYWORDS: Monahan meteorite
- "Hubble observations confirm that planets form from disks around stars," ESA HST 9 Oct.
KEYWORDS: epsilon Eridani planetary disk
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8 October 2006 Sunday |
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6 October 2006 Friday |
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5 October 2006 Thursday |
- This is World Space Week 4-10 Oct., dates of the first artificial-satellite launch and adoption of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
KEYWORDS: public outreach
- "Asteroid named after Chinese middle school," Xinhua 5 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 4073 Ruianzhongxue (1981 UE10), 16596 Stevenstrauss (1992 UN7), IAU asteroid namings
- "Students save Earth from asteroid in virtual lab," Space Foundation at SpaceRef.com 5 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 99942 Apophis (2004 MN4)
- "New Telescope Another Star in UCF’s Rising Astronomy Program," Univ. of Central Florida 4 Oct. - Quote: "We are among the top 10 planetary research groups in the country."
KEYWORDS: Robinson Observatory
- "Planets Prefer Safe Neighborhoods," Univ. of Arizona 3 Oct. - Also available at SST Web site.
KEYWORDS: HD 97048, planetary disk photoevaporation
- "Oct. 17 - 18 Meeting in Tucson Focuses on Visionary Space Projects," Univ. of Arizona 29 Sept. - Note: NIAC Student Fellows presentations will include using NEAs for radiation shielding for travel to Mars by Daniella Della-Giustina and using NEAs with tether technology by Jonathan Sharma.
KEYWORDS: minor object development, NIAC
- "Jupiter Ahoy!" NASA New Horizons mission 26 Sept.
KEYWORDS: Kuiper Belt, Main Belt, Pluto
- "'Pseudo-MPEC' for 6Q0B44E," Bill Gray 3 Sept. - Quote: "[This] object is called an 'artificial satellite', but ... it's still possible that this is a dwarf asteroid... With the current data, it looks as if this object probably entered the Earth/Moon system sometime between about 2000 and 2003, though dates as far back as 1991 are quite possible." Note: Absolute magnitude (brightness) H=30.4 for a typical near-Earth asteroid converts by standard formula to a diameter on the order of three meters.
- DASO Circular 63, IAU MPC 29 Aug.
- "6Q0B44E," Wikipedia
KEYWORDS: natural Earth satellites
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4 October 2006 Wednesday |
- "How I Found My New Comet" by David H. Levy, Sky & Telescope 4 Oct.
KEYWORDS: C/2006 T1 (Levy)
- "Meteor awes Foothills residents," The Arizona Republic 4 Oct.
- "October 1, 2006 Fireball," Cloudbait Observatory 3 Oct. - Quote: "This is the longest fireball I've recorded, lasting some 27 seconds. Other camera data suggest its full flight lasted at least 45 seconds." Note: This Cloudbait page was updated on 9 Oct. with more info about possibilities for finding meteorites.
- "Strange, bright lights surprise stargazers," The Santa Fe New Mexican 3 Oct. - Note: Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time, so 10:15pm in Arizona, as well as 10:15pm in Washington state on Pacific Daylight Time, are the same as 11:15pm in the states of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming, which are currently on Mountain Daylight Time. What was reported seen "over Seattle" some two hours earlier is a separate event (see Yakimah news below).
- "Arizonans bedazzled by meteor," The Arizona Republic 3 Oct.
- "Callers report Saguaro Lake fireball," East Valley Tribune 3 Oct.
- "Strange night lights streak over NM," KOB-TV 2 Oct.
- "Giant meteor sails over Saguaro Lake," The Arizona Republic 2 Oct.
- "Callers: Ball of fire at Saguaro Lake," East Valley Tribune 2 Oct.
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 1 southwestern USA event
- "UFO surprise in five cities," Sabah 4 Oct. - Quote: "In several regions of Turkey, there was a surprise sighting of [an object Saturday night] speculated to have been a meteor."
KEYWORDS: 2006 Sept. 30 Turkey event
- "How a local boy found his destiny in the stars," Seattle Post-Intelligencer 4 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Washington state, meteor-wrong
- "Meteor reported in Yakima area," AP at KXLY-TV 2 Oct. - Quote: "The flurry of calls began around 9 p.m. Sunday."
KEYWORDS: 2006 Oct. 1 Washington state event
- "John Gurke, CGCS, at Aurora Country Club finds a meteorite," WorldGolf.com 2 Oct.
KEYWORDS: Illinois
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2 October 2006 Monday |
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[ September 2006 News | News Archive | November 2006 News ]
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