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(meteorobs) (Fwd) NEWS



I believe that this is the asteroid that Pierre was talking about 
this morning on the irc chat.

Kim

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Fri, 03 Jul 1998 21:15:05 -0400
From:          JAY RESPLER <JRespler@surfnjdot net>
Organization:  Sky Reporter at  njsurf.com/skyviews/
To:            JRespler@surfnjdot net
Subject:       NEWS

July 3, 1998


            Astronomers Say They Have Found a New Class of
            Asteroid

            By MALCOLM W. BROWNE

                 stronomers at the University of Hawaii have discovered an asteroid that
                 they believe represents a hitherto undetected type, a type that could hit
                 Earth without warning. 

            In a press release distributed Thursday, Dr. David Tholen and a graduate
            student, Robert Whiteley, reported that the asteroid circles the sun entirely
            within Earth's orbit. All other known Earth-approaching asteroids travel in orbits
            that lie at least partly outside Earth's orbit. 

            The astronomers calculated that 1998 DK36, as the asteroid was designated, is
            about 40 yards in diameter, and that if it hit Earth it would have about the same
            effect as that of the asteroid that exploded above the Tunguska River in Siberia in
            1908, flattening a vast tract of forest. 

            Tholen said that 1998 DK36 posed no apparent threat to Earth, but that an
            asteroid orbit entirely within Earth's orbit opened the possibility that dangerous
            asteroids might exist where astronomers did not normally look for them. 

            "All other efforts to discover asteroids on a collision course with the Earth are
            being directed at a region of the sky almost opposite the sun," Tholen said. "The
            significance of this discovery is that we would have otherwise never found this
            new asteroid because it apparently doesn't travel to that region of the sky." 

            But Dr. Gareth Williams of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams in
            Cambridge, Mass., cast doubt on the assertion that the asteroid orbits the sun
            entirely within Earth's orbit. 

            "That orbital calculation was based on just two brief observations of the object,
            one lasting seven minutes on the night of Feb. 23, and the other on Feb. 24 for
            four minutes," Williams said. "Of the solutions we plotted, some showed the
            asteroid's orbit to be entirely within the Earth's orbit, but others showed part of
            the orbit outside the Earth's orbit." 

            Tracking the asteroid, which was on the far side of the sun, was difficult using
            the Mauna Kea telescope, Williams said, because of its angular proximity to the
            sun; only a few minutes were available for observations. He said the
            announcement about the asteroid "was a bit premature." 

            In any case, Tholen said, "1998 DK36 is nothing to lose sleep over. It's the ones
            we haven't found that are of concern."





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-- 
Regards,
Jay Respler
--
            JRespler@surfnjdot net 
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