(meteorobs) OT -- Asteroid 2007 TU24

meteoreye at comcast.net meteoreye at comcast.net
Mon Jan 21 13:33:42 EST 2008


On the 29th and 30th of January, we will have an opportunity to observe a rapidly moving asteroid.

2007 TU24 will be moving over 10 degrees per hour at it's most rapid, and will reach a peak magnitude of +10.2 at that time. It is a fairly large (250-550 meter) asteroid, and will pass about 1.4 Lunar Distances from earth (0.0037 AU; 552,540 km; 343,333 miles; 325 million smoots.)

Here's a rough outline of the path, as of now. The current orbit is based on 104 observations from discovery on Oct 11 2007 through Jaunuary 18th. The last few observations included have made only minor changes to the orbit, so it appears quite robust. If any substantial changes occur I'll post an update. It should be brighter than 11th magnitude from 0300 UT on the 29th through 1000 UT on the 30th.

00UT Jan 29 (7PM EST Jan 28)- Triangulum-Andromeda border; moving about 3 degrees per hour.
01UT-04 UT in Andromeda.
05 UT (00 Jan 29 EST, 21 Jn 28 PST) Andromeda-Perseus border moving about 4 degrees per hour.
06-08 UT in Perseus, accelerating to 5 degrees per hour.
Closest approach is at about 0800 UT
09 UT in Cassiopia
10UT In Camelopardalis until 1800 UT
Peak motion and brightness in Camelopardalis about 10 degrees per hour is during daylight for north america at about 1600 UT. It should be dark in Asia by then.
It moves into Ursa Major around 1900 UT and travels through the Great Bear's head toward beta UMA.
For the US east coast as darkness on the 29th (00UT Jan 30) falls the motion will be back down to 4 degrees per second.
It will come very close to beta UMA (the lower corner of the Big Dipper's Bowl furthest from the handle) from 0800-0900 UT on the 30th.

Wayne


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