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(meteorobs) Fwd: "CLOSEST FLYBY EVER"


> -----Original Message-----
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 11:08 PM
> > ===================
> >
> >                    CLOSEST FLYBY EVER
> >
> > Less than 24 hours from the time this message is being issued,
> > a tiny, newly discovered asteroid will make the closest flyby
> > past Earth that has ever been predicted by astronomers.
> >
> > The object, dubbed 2004 FH, is probably only about 20 meters in
> > diameter (the size of a house). An electronic circular issued
> > late on March 17th by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge,
> > Massachusetts, indicates that it will definitely not hit the
> > Earth. It will pass about 49,000 kilometers (30,500 miles)
> > from Earth's center, which is 1/8 the distance of the Moon.
> >
> > This object was discovered on March 16th by astronomers of MIT's
> > Lincoln
> > Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey in Socorro, New Mexico.
> > Further
> > observations made on the 17th at Klet Observatory (Czech Republic),
> > Starkenburg
> > Observatory (Germany), and Modra Observatory (Slovenia) helped the
> > Minor Planet
> > Center compute its exact trajectory.
> >
> > The flyby scenario for 2004 FH goes like this:
> >
> >    * At 18 hours Universal Time on March 18th, the asteroid will be
> > 12th
> > magnitude as it glides just south of the star Spica in
> Virgo, heading
> > west.
> >
> >    * By 22 hours UT on the 18th, it will have brightened to 10th
> > magnitude when
> > it passes closest to Earth in the constellation Antlia.
> >
> >    * At 0 hours UT on March 19th -- which is around the
> time darkness
> > falls on
> > the East Coast of North America on Thursday, March 18th -- it will
> > have faded
> > back to 12th magnitude as it shoots by Sirius near the open star
> > cluster Messier
> > 41. By then it will be receding from Earth and heading back into
> > space.
> >
> > Because 2004 FH will be passing so close, it is not practical for me
> > to include
> > a detailed ephemeris in this message. Its path across the
> sky depends
> > greatly on
> > an observer's vantage point on Earth (owing to the parallax effect).
> > Observers
> > who wish to locate it in small telescopes should use the
> Minor Planet
> > Center's
> > Ephemeris Service to make detailed predictions for their own
> > geographic
> > location:
> >
> >     http://cfa-www.harvarddot edu/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html
> >
> > According to the orbit calculated by Gareth Williams, associate
> > director of the
> > Minor Planet Center, 2004 FH belongs to the Aten class of asteroids.
> > It circles
> > the Sun in just under 9 months in very nearly the same plane as
> > Earth's orbit.
> > At perihelion it swings well inside the orbit of Venus; at aphelion
> > (as
> > currently) it ranges just outside that of the Earth.
> >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------




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