Earth To Have Near-Miss Tonight From Mystery Object

[Keith Ranville]

It is troubling enough when one realized just how many near-earth objects (NEOs) there are. It's still more troubling when one knows that 2010 AL30 is about to pass within a uncomfortably close distance: 80,000 miles or 1/3 the distance to Earth. It's worse when scientists call it a "mystery object."

That's how scientists, including NASA, have been characterizing 2010 AL30. The object will reach its closest approach to Earth at 7:45 AM EST (1245 GMT) on Wednesday morning.

2010 AL30 has been thought to possibly be man-made because of its orbital period, which is almost exactly one year. After all, there is a lot of junk out that that we have deposited and left.

However, Paul Chodas, a scientist at NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA says that he took a closer look at 2010 AL30 on Monday and in his opinion, it is not man-made, but rather, a small asteroid.

Chodas said the 2010 AL30's trajectory is not the type used to transfer spacecraft out of Earth's orbit. Additionally, there appear to be no other objects that might typically "follow" in the wake of a manmade object. Finally, he said that during the Apollo lunar missions of the late 1960s and 1970s, when many spacecraft were launched into the space near the moon, it was far from Earth.

2010 AL30 is estimated to be about 36 feet (11 meters) wide. According to Spaceweather.com, it will appear as bright as a 14th magnitude star. It will pass through the constellations Orion, Taurus and Pisces as it moves by the Earth.

For those who wonder just how often NEOs pass the Earth, another will bypass us later this week. However, that asteroid, 2010 AG30, will miss us by 650,000 miles, a much more comfortable distance, though a near-miss in astronomical terms.

Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com


http://www.huliq.com/3257/90387/earth-have-near-miss-tonight-mystery-object

[Keith Ranville]

January 12th, 2010
Asteroid or Space Junk? Object Makes Close Pass by Earth Wednesday


Caption: Asteroid or rocket booster? 2010 AL30 as imaged remotely from Australia on Jan. 11, 2010. Credit: Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero, Remanzacco Observatory.

An unusual object will make a close flyby of Earth on Wednesday, coming within only 128,000 km (about 80,000 miles), or at a distance about three times less than the moon’s orbit. The object, named 2010 AL30, is about 10-15 meters long, and asteroid watchers say there is no chance it will hit the planet. But is it an asteroid or perhaps a piece of space junk, like a spent rocket booster?

UPDATE: The Solar System Dynamics website now says the object is an Apollo-type asteroid, which are Near-Earth asteroids that have orbits which cross the Earth's orbit and pass approximately 1 AU or less from Earth.

According to Italian astronomers Ernesto Guido and Giovanni Sostero of the Remanzacco Observatory, who took this image (above) of 2010 AL30, it has an orbital period of almost exactly one year and might be a man-made object.

However, Alan Harris, senior researcher at the Space Science Institute said the object has a perfectly ordinary Earth-crossing orbit.

“Unlikely to be artificial, its orbit doesn’t resemble any useful spacecraft trajectory, and its encounter velocity with Earth is not unusually low,” he said.

The object make its closest approach at 12:48 GMT on Wednesday, and and amateur astronomers are encouraged to observe 2010 AL30 as a 14th magnitude star in the constellations of Orion, Taurus, and Pisces. Check here to get the ephemeris of the object from the Solar System Dynamics website.

Several observatories, including the Goldstone Radar will be observing NEO 2010 AL30 during its Earth flyby. After the January 13 close flyby, it will go too close to the Sun to be observed.

Sources: Remanzacco Observatory, Spaceweather.com

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/01/12/asteroid-or-space-junk-object-makes-close-pass-by-earth-wednesday/