Long-Lost Near-Earth A$$hole Spotted"
Posted on 10/16/2003 10:39:44 AM PDT by blam
Long-lost near-Earth asteroid spotted
17:35 16 October 03
NewScientist.com news service
A large and potentially hazardous asteroid that went missing for almost 66 years ago was re-discovered by astronomers on Wednesday morning. The good news is that its next fly-by, on 4 November, will miss the Earth by a relatively comfortable seven million kilometres.
Asteroid 1937 UB, later dubbed Hermes, set a record for closest recorded approach to the Earth on 30 October 1937. The record lasted for 50 years. Hermes is one to two kilometres in diameter and would cause global devastation if it hit the planet.
So, given its near approach, observers in 1937 were extremely keen to characterise its orbit and assess whether future passes would target the Earth. But with only four days of observations, Hermes was lost soon after it passed by.
Its rediscovery was an accident. Brian Skiff, of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, spotted an interesting bright object with the LONEOS telescope in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Recognising from its motion that it was close to the Earth, he alerted the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Tim Spahr was up before dawn on the US east coast checking asteroid reports for the Minor Planet Center, and posted an alert asking other astronomers to make confirming observations.
Track back
Before the Sun rose in California, Jim Young saw it and made independent observations at the Table Mountain Observatory that helped narrow down the orbit. With this data, Spahr and others were able to track down unrecognised observations of the asteroid dating back to 26 August.
Then Brian Marsden, at the Minor Planet Center, combined the observations and calculated an orbit close to that of the long-lost Hermes - and revealing the safe fly-by on 4 November. The new orbit does not match the original one perfectly, but gravitational perturbation caused by the asteroid's close approaches to Earth and Venus could account for the variation.
Marsden hopes astronomers can pin down the orbit better by making radar observations as the asteroid passes Earth. "I would be very surprised if it wasn't Hermes," Marsden told New Scientist.
Hermes has been on asteroid-hunters' wish list for a long time. "It's the traditional long-lost one that really came close," says Marsden, who calculated an orbit 1969.
Others had continued searching without success, although in 2001 Lutz Schmadel and Joachim Schubart of the University of Heidelberg predicted that October 2003 would be a good time to look.
Jeff Hecht
Long-Lost Near-Earth A$$hole Spotted"
Asteroid 1937 UB, later dubbed Hermes, set a record for closest recorded approach to the Earth on 30 October 1937. The record lasted for 50 years. Hermes is one to two kilometres in diameter and would cause global devastation if it hit the planet.
Yikes! Is it getting closer every visit is what I want to know... or maybe not.
...women and chill'ren, gays hurt the most, news on A2..NYT :))
True. America is no longer so dominant in science. Seeing as how it's all we have that keeps us on top of the survival pile, seems research ought to get more attention.
Typical.
pretty close to the truth..
In the next 120 years, 6.3 billion humans will die. (Think about that for a minute)
If it hit the moon, think of all the derbis that would strike earth.
w/ the fallout hitting the earth..a deadly light show fer' sure...I'll be heading out for the deep caves.
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