Normally, I might not bother with the big AAS meeting- there’s a separate DPS meeting (last Autumn) for Planetary Sciences, and why wade through cosmology, obscure neon lines, etc.? But this year, there’s some material, and of course, a telescope… Read More »AAS243 Wrapup (Scrapup?)
Besides Acta Astronautica, other journals within Elsevier have works of some regard: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 626 Nesvorný, D. Dauphas, N. Vokrouhlický, D. et al. Isotopic trichotomy of main belt asteroids from… 118521 Planetary and Space Science, vol.… Read More »Note, Paper: Elsevier Elsewhere
January’s Acta Astronautica is a mother lode: Schmidt, N. Planetary defense governance: Thirty years of development and the multilateral… p. 343 10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.10.050 Jamschon, L. Garry, M. Albrecht, R. et al. Diplomatic, geopolitical and economic consequences… p. 496 10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.10.052 Melamed, A.… Read More »Note, Paper: The other A A
Recently-discovered asteroid 2024 BX1 is… no more, it’s now meteorites (somewhere). Discovered just last week by Krisztián Sárneczky, of Hungary’s Konkoly Observatory, the object entered over eastern Germany and appeared as an obvious fireball. This is Sárneczky’s third pre-impact detection;… Read More »Ein Asteroid Impaktor… und Meteoriten?
A quick note, since this story is yet to be written: Antarctic meteorite collection (at least, by US teams) has finally restarted after the pandemic. Meanwhile the Japanese and the Belgians (jointly, sure) were back out last season. This should… Read More »On Ice: Meteorite Field Season back in season
Happy Saturday. In weekend news, congratulations to Adam McKay, director of Don’t Look Up, and now honored by the official naming of the provisional 2005 AM26, now (227033) Adamjmckay. Let’s all lift up our glasses to McKay, the WGSBN, the… Read More »On The Rocks: (227033)(formerly known as AM26)
For those following the Lucy mission (since you’re on this site), several papers in Space Science Reviews (quite the source): Reuter, D.C. Simon, A.A. Lunsford, A. et al. L’Ralph: A Visible/Infrared Spectral Im… vol. 219, 69 10.1007/s11214-023-01009-2 Weaver, H.A. Wilson,… Read More »Lucy: Now actually in the sky
Can’t close out 2023 without the December Astronomy & Astrophysics– A good one: Bemporad, A. Pennella, S. Battams, K. et al. Analysis of the first multi-band observations… vol. 680, A90 Vaubaillon, J. Ye, Q.-Z. Egal, A. et al. A new… Read More »Note, Paper: Yesterday’s A & A
Latest Cometary Science News out: cometarysciencenews.org . If you think comets are not appropriate for an asteroid blog, then you have a 1966 mentality of asteroids… and a pre-Stardust mentality of comets. Two new papers: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko telescopic observations (including species… Read More »Cometary Science News, January
Taking a look at the boards- we have an object of some interest in Earth’s vicinity for the next few weeks.
2023 YO1, an Apollo-type NEO, was discovered at the tail end of 2023 (as its designation suggests). It just passed Earth Closest Approach (Jan. 10) of ~2,600,000 km (nothing unusual), and will be in our immediate vicinity til ~Jan 21. This fairly long pass (~Earth month) is no fluke: 2023 YO1 has a slow (Earth-relative) velocity, due to its Earthlike orbit. In turn, this close orbit (including relatively low inclination, 4.4 deg.) makes it an accessible object. The mission ∆v is, for the flight trajectories put out so far, ~4.12 km/s. This is not only quite low- among the handful of lowest asteroid flights on our tables. But, like many NEO trips being put on the tables- it’s less energetic than a lander to Earth’s moon. Certainly a soft (powered, necessarily) lander, and lower in ∆v than a hard lander.Read More »Potentially Halcyon Object: 2023 YO1