|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
  |
Asteroids visited (to be visited) by space probes |
| Asteroids that are targets of past/current and future space missions. |
| |
|
|
Potentially hazardous asteroids |
| Add to your RedShift’s catalog recently discovered potentially hazardous asteroids that have close approaches to Earth orbit. These objects are qualified for the SPACEGUARD survey and observed especially carefully. |
| |
|
|
Asteroids at opposition |
| Update the orbits of the bright minor planets which are nearly at opposition now. Don't forget to have a look at them that time! Here they are (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution) |
| |
|
|
Asteroids occulting a star |
| There are wonderful events on the sky when a planet or an asteroid occults a star. Especially it is exciting when the asteroid is so dim that it is invisible, but the star is bright. In this case, it looks like a star suddenly disappears for a while! However, it is equally interesting to see how one bright object occults another. Surely, it is worth to be aware of such an event in advance in order to look at the star at the right time. Next months there will be several cases when a planet (or the Moon) occults a star, but none when it happens by means of an asteroid. Nevertheless, do not worry! RedShift 3 gives you such a possibility. Just run our program, update there orbits of several bright asteroids that occulted a star earlier this year (to get a more reliable picture), set the right time in the past, and enjoy the events! Here they are (ref: Dr. Bowell's solution) |
| |
|
|
Radar detected asteroids |
| Here you find just determined/improved orbits of the asteroids that were recently with help of powerful radar telescopes (by 70-meter antennas in Goldstone, Madrid and other large instruments located in Evpatoria, Arecibo, etc.) |
| |
|
|
Unusual minor planets |
| There is a special type of asteroids called by Minor Planet Center as ‘unusual minor planets’. They distinguish from others by an abnormal large value(s) of one or more orbital elements. Here are several such objects discovered recently and not yet included to the "standard" RedShift data base. |
| |
|
|
|
|
  |
2000 WR106 |
The Spacewatch Project at the University of Arizona has discovered a minor planet in the outer reaches of the solar system which appears to be the brightest known such object other than Pluto. The diameter of the newfound object, designated 2000 WR106, is estimated to be between 330 and 750 miles. According to the orbit data the object is 43 times farther from the Sun than the Earth is (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell’s solution).
|
 11:12:2000 |
|
|
|
1999 CF119 |
An object that has the largest known orbit of anything orbiting the Sun, 1999 CF119, was discovered by the group of astronomers from the University of Hawaii in February 1999. Its furthest point from the Sun is 200 times the Earth-Sun distance. The object belongs to Scattered Kuiper Belt Object (SKBO) category (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution).
|
|
02:12:1999 |
|
|
|
2004 BV18 |
2004 BV18 was discovered by a volunteer, amateur astronomer, analyzing data gathered by the University of Arizona's Spacewatch program on
January 19, 2004. 60-to-120-foot diameter asteroid missed Earth by about 1.2 million miles on Jan. 22 (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution).
|
|
03:03:2004 |
|
|
|
1999 DG8 |
An object orbiting the Sun that is more distant than anything yet discovered was observed. 1999 DG8 is an example of what is called a Scattered Kuiper Belt Object (SKBO). The object is estimated to be 100 kilometers in size. It was discovered by the group of astronomers from the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Physics in February 1999 (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution).
|
|
02:12:1999 |
|
|
|
1999 RB |
A new asteroid is found by amateurs! This is 1999 RB discovered by Ian Griffin and Rebecca Greatrex (the Auckland's public observatory, New Zealand) on August 2, 1999. They used the drift scanning technique, i.e. a certain region of sky is scanned by a non-driven telescope several times, and then the obtained images are superimposed. There is a "blink" on the matched images when they catch an object which changes its position relative to fixed stars. This discovery of the Auckland amateurs is even more surprising if to know that they made it on the very first night of their search for new asteroids! (Ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution.)
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
1998 KY26 |
An object of shortest rotation period ever found in the Solar system is asteroid 1998 KY26. The Sun rises and sets there every 5 minutes! It is also the smallest celestial body ever studied in detail. The asteroid is of just 30 meters across diameter, that is less than the instrument employed to study it (NASA's 70-meter-diameter antenna in Goldstone, CA). This remarkable minor planet has also been proved to be rich of water, and its orbit is very convenient for access by a spacecraft. Thus, why can not we dream that one day 1998 KY26 will be used in space agriculture, i.e. people can grow food there? (Ref: JPL News #99-060: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution)
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
1998 OX4 |
Just two months after nerve tracking discovery of a potentially hazardous asteroid 1999 AN 10 another similar piece of rock flying in space has drawn attention of the world community. This is asteroid 1998 OX4 discovered by the Spacewatch team rather long time ago, last year. However, in June 1999 a team of Italian astronomers led by Andrea Milani announced results of their study on the asteroid motion. They found a non-zero (~ 10-7) probability of collision of 1998 OX4 with the Earth in 2046... However, just to keep courage: such a probability is even less than that of impact of an unknown yet asteroid in any given year. So, do not worry, but... observe this asteroid to improve its orbital solution and hopefully eliminate a possibility of such an awful event at all (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution).
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
1999 AN 10 |
ATTENTION!!! On the 13th January, 1999 asteroid 1999 AN10 by LINEAR was discovered. On the 13th April, 1999 the first publications in WWW appeared where this object had been announced as the most potentially dangerous asteroid for Earth. Recently Italian astronomers predicted its orbit for 40 years and founded that in 2027 it will pass close to Earth. However, the most important thing here is the influence of our planet's gravity on the asteroid that time. It origins the effect, when relatively small uncertainties about the asteroid's distance from Earth in 2027 lead to big uncertainties of that in 2039, big enough to be afraid of impact of this half-mile diameter asteroid to Earth... Fortunately, the probability of such a terrible event is rather small (~1*10-9), but now 1999 AN10 is at the top of the list of potentially dangerous asteroids. Recently astronomers of JPL re-calculated the orbit of 1999 AN 10 by using additional observations and proved that the asteroid will pass Earth at distance of not less than 30.000 km from the surface of our planet. Get the updated orbit of 1999 AN 10 (ref: JPL solution # 28).
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
1996 TO66 |
For the first time the rotation period of a Kuiper belt object (a trans-neptunian asteroid) is measured! It has been done be a group of astronomers from the University of Hawaii for the object 1996 TO66 at the end of 1998. This object is one of the brightest trans-neptunian asteroids, although it's magnitude is 21.2 only owing to its far distance from the Earth. Update the orbit of such a historic object in your RedShift catalog (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution).
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
1999 CG9 |
A mystery object is discovered in the course of LINEAR project not far from the Earth on February 10, 1999. It circles the Sun on the extremely unusual orbit very close to that of our planet. The new object, called 1999 CG9 was even initially thought to be a spacecraft that had escaped the Earth's gravity. Now, however, it is proved to be an asteroid of 30-50 meters across (and it is just the 2nd asteroid which orbit is found to be so similar to that of the Earth). Brian Marsden of Harvard-Smithsonian said: "The most likely explanation is that it's a chip off the Moon"(!). Do not be slow in downloading this discovery (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution.)
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
1998 FS144 |
At the end of 1998 high school students, Heather McCurdy, Miriam Gustafson and George Peterson of Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Massachusetts discovered a new Kuiper belt object. It was just the 72nd object of that type founded since their first discovery in1992! The asteroid (the official number 1998 FS144) is of about 100 miles in diameter and has almost circular orbit. Download and add it to your RedShift catalog (ref: MPC 33508).
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
1996 TL66 |
Update the orbital elements of an unusual miniplanet, 1996 TL66, another Kuiper belt object. It is of about 300 miles across and is the most distant object of the Solar system being discovered up to now. At certain times it traces three times farther from the Sun than Pluto! (Ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution.)
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
(3671) Dionysus |
Asteroid 3671 Dionysus is a small (about 1 km) but a remarkable minor planet. Stefano Mottola and Gerhard Hahn from German Aerospace Research stablishment (DLR) discovered a moon orbiting it! Dionysus is just the second asteroid proved to have a satellite like the big planets and the first one whose satellite has been found by ground-based means. (Another such a remarkable asteroid is 253 Ida, but its satellite has been discovered from on-board Galileo). Dionysus is a Earth-crossing asteroid regularly coming close to our planet. The last approach of Dionysus to the Earth happened in 1997 when the minimal distance between the two bodies was some 17 million km. Download and check the updated orbit of this highly unusual object (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution).
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|
|
(45) Eugenia |
Another discovery of such kind has been made recently. In March 1999 W. J. Merline, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder and his team report about discovery of a small satellite orbiting asteroid (45) Eugenia. Not too much known about that satellite, so try to look for it near its "central planet", (45) Eugenia. To facilitate that get the updated orbit the latter (ref: Dr. Ed. Bowell's solution).
|
|
02:11:1999 |
|
|  |
|
