7/23/02 9:17:29 PM Pacific Daylight Time

This one ain't gonna git us, but it's close enough to see with a small
telescope, which is close enough.



isodextim wrote:

> Dear Fellow Starry Nighters
> Below is from Sky and Telescope  I am reposting this for everyone
> to have a chance to see and NEO. (Near Earth Object).  I will
> post some helpful hints in Part II.
>
> =================================================================
> This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Minor Planets
> ==================================================================
>
> NEXT MONTH'S FLYBY OF 2002 NY40
>
> In mid-August, a newly discovered asteroid will pass close enough to
> Earth that it should be easy to spot in small telescopes and even
> binoculars. This object was first detected on July 14th by astronomers
> using the LINEAR 1-meter survey telescope in New Mexico, and it has
> now been designated 2002 NY40 by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge,
> Massachusetts. According to calculations by the center's associate
> director, Gareth V. Williams, it is traveling in a low-inclination,
> Apollo-type orbit with a period of 3.03 years. Its August 18th flyby
> should bring it to within 530,000 kilometers (330,000 miles) of Earth,
> which is just outside the Moon's distance.
>
> There are several key differences between this encounter and that of
> 2002 MN, which made news a few weeks ago. That object came well inside
> our own Moon's orbit and was not detected until several days after the
> fact. The new asteroid was found on its way in toward the Sun, a full
> month before its own flyby. But 2002 NY40 is about 10 times larger
> than 2002 MN; the best current estimates make it about half a
> kilometer (a third of a mile) across.
>
> Still quite faint at magnitude 18 in the constellation Aquarius, 2002
> NY40 is making a very tight loop around the star Beta Aquarii. During
> the next few weeks it will brighten tremendously and yet remain almost
> motionless in the sky -- the eerie signature of an asteroid hurtling
> right toward the Earth! Then it veers off to the northwest as it goes
> by, racing past the double star Albireo in Cygnus for observers in the
> Western Hemisphere on the night of August 17-18.
>
> On that Saturday evening, 2002 NY40 should become as bright as
> magnitude 9.3 during the period when it is well placed for viewing
> from North America. Its angular velocity will exceed 4 arcminutes per
> minute, a motion easily perceptible in small telescopes. Sky &
> Telescope plans to issue detailed observing instructions, through
> AstroAlerts and SkyandTelescope.com, in the days leading up to this
> rare event.
>
> A mere 24 hours after it goes by, 2002 NY40 plunges hopelessly beyond
> reach of Earth-based telescopes as it heads in toward the Sun. (We are
> then viewing its unilluminated backside, which explains why it becomes
> so faint, so fast.)
>
> Meanwhile, professional astronomers are gearing up to make the most of
> this encounter. "2002 NY40 is a potentially very good radar target for
> mid-August," notes Mike Nolan of Arecibo Observatory and Cornell
> University. In a message posted on the Minor Planet Mailing List (
> http://www.bitnik.com/mp ), Nolan urges advanced amateurs to obtain
> detailed photometry of the asteroid on the nights leading up to the
> flyby. A good light curve, revealing the object's rotation rate, would
> help in selecting the instrumentation to be used with the Arecibo
> 1,000-foot radio dish.
>
> While there is no danger of 2002 NY40 striking the Earth during this
> flyby, a future impact has not been ruled out. Both NEODyS, operated
> by the University of Pisa, and NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office
> at JPL have identified a number of very close encounters in the years
> to come. These occur either around August 18th as the asteroid heads
> in toward the Sun, or else near February 14th when it is on the way
> out. Both agencies are focusing a flyby just 20 years from now (on
> August 18, 2022), when there appears to be a 1-in-500,000 chance of an
> impact -- extremely unlikely, but worrisome just the same.
>
> Roger W. Sinnott Senior Editor Sky & Telescope
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The following ephemeris, adapted from the Minor Planet Ephemeris
> Service at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html , gives the
> object's right ascension and declination at 0h Universal Time on
> successive dates. Also listed are its distance from the Earth (Delta)
> and Sun (r) in astronomical units, 1 a.u. being 149,600,000
> kilometers. The last column is the predicted visual magnitude.
>
> Because this is a newly discovered object passing fairly close to the
> Earth, the ephemeris is still somewhat uncertain (especially on the
> final dates listed). Keep in mind that these positions are geocentric;
> parallax at closest approach could shift the object's position by 1/2
> degree or more depending on observer's geographic location. (To
> display the ephemeris properly, your e-mail program should be set to
> use a fixed-space font such as Courier.)
>
> Ephemeris of 2002 NY40
>
> Date R.A. (2000) Decl. Delta r V
> (0h UT) h m o ' a.u. a.u. mag.
> Jul 22 21 33.8 -05 46 0.347 1.336 18.2
> Jul 23 21 34.0 -05 41 0.333 1.325 18.1
> Jul 24 21 34.1 -05 37 0.319 1.313 18.0
> Jul 25 21 34.3 -05 32 0.306 1.302 17.8
> Jul 26 21 34.4 -05 27 0.292 1.290 17.7
> Jul 27 21 34.6 -05 23 0.279 1.278 17.6
> Jul 28 21 34.6 -05 18 0.266 1.267 17.4
> Jul 29 21 34.7 -05 13 0.253 1.255 17.3
> Jul 30 21 34.8 -05 09 0.240 1.243 17.1
> Jul 31 21 34.8 -05 04 0.227 1.232 17.0
> Aug 01 21 34.7 -04 59 0.214 1.220 16.8
> Aug 02 21 34.7 -04 54 0.201 1.208 16.6
> Aug 03 21 34.6 -04 49 0.188 1.196 16.5
> Aug 04 21 34.5 -04 43 0.176 1.185 16.3
> Aug 05 21 34.3 -04 37 0.163 1.173 16.1
> Aug 06 21 34.0 -04 31 0.151 1.161 15.9
> Aug 07 21 33.7 -04 24 0.138 1.149 15.6
> Aug 08 21 33.4 -04 16 0.126 1.137 15.4
> Aug 09 21 32.9 -04 08 0.113 1.125 15.1
> Aug 10 21 32.3 -03 57 0.101 1.113 14.8
> Aug 11 21 31.5 -03 44 0.089 1.101 14.5
> Aug 12 21 30.5 -03 28 0.077 1.089 14.2
> Aug 13 21 29.1 -03 06 0.065 1.077 13.8
> Aug 14 21 27.0 -02 35 0.053 1.064 13.3
> Aug 15 21 23.7 -01 46 0.040 1.052 12.8
> Aug 16 21 17.7 -00 16 0.028 1.040 12.1
> Aug 17 21 03.1 +03 23 0.017 1.028 11.0
> Aug 18 19 39.2 +22 26 0.005 1.016 9.4
> Aug 19 10 50.2 +21 39 0.009 1.004 21.0
> Aug 20 10 06.4 +12 09 0.020 0.992 49.7
>
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