close approach of 2010 AL30 on January 12/13

[lindhardDeltager Super Nova]

Her er lidt til aften:

A new object (almost certainly an asteroid) has just been found that will pass
within about 80,000 miles of the Earth around midday on January 13 possibly
reaching brighter than 14th magnitude around 10:00 UT. It was discovered on
January 10 by LINEAR, specifically by M. Blythe, G. Spitz, R. Brungard, J.
Paige, P. Festler of 704 Lincoln Laboratory ETS, New Mexico using a 1.0-m
reflector. Unusually, its orbital period is almost exactly 1.00 year which
might mean it could be artificial in nature. However, its encounter velocity
is high as it passes safely by the Earth which means it must almost certainly
be of a natural origin, in which case it may be around 10 metres across.

In principle, the object will be visible from the UK between 19:00UT on Jan 12
and 04:00 UT on Jan 13 but unfortunately the UK weather prospects for this
time are rather dire! What’s new? If you do happen to have clear skies then
the object will be about 15th magnitude moving quite quickly at 40-120 “/min.

Ephemerides of 2010 AL30 for observing locations worldwide can be found by
consulting either the JPL Horizons Web Interface at:

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi#top

or the Minor Planet Center Ephemeris Page at:
http://scully.cfa.harvard.edu/~cgi/MPEph2

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mvh
Lars

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