SUBJECT: NEW UNUSUAL ASTEROID FOUND FILE: UFO1495 (406) Fri 31 Jan 92 1:39 By: Don Allen To: All Re: New HUGE asteroid found ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 11568 of sci.astro: From: peter@arafel.space.ualberta.ca (Peter Brown) Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space Subject: NEW UNUSUAL ASTEROID FOUND... Keywords: Asteroid, Comet Message-ID: <1992Jan24.201444.21555@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> Date: 24 Jan 92 20:14:44 GMT Sender: news@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada Lines: 20 Nntp-Posting-Host: arafel.space.ualberta.ca NEW OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM ASTEROID/COMET FOUND - DUNCAN STEEL, 1992 January 24th On January 1st an object presently designated SS078 (Spacewatch Survey object number 078) was discovered by Dr David Rabinowitz using the Spacewatch Camera at Kitt Peak, Arizona. It is apparently an asteroid (no comet-like coma detected) with an orbital period of 92 years, inclination near 25 degrees, eccentricity just below 0.6, perihelion just within Saturn and aphelion in Pluto's region. Estimated size is 80-100 km, although it could be as much as 200 km if like a dark C-type asteroid. This makes it the largest new object found in the solar system in 15 years. Apparently this object belongs in the same class as 2060 Chiron and maybe 1991 DA; recall that Chiron is now showing cometary emissions as it approaches perihelion, although SS078 (like 1991 DA) shows no cometary activity despite being near perihelion. Duncan Steel - Dis@aaocbn.oz.au Article 11562 of sci.astro: Xref: bilver sci.astro:11562 sci.space:16402 Path: bilver!tous!peora!masscomp!ocpt!think.com!ames!ncar!noao!muller From: muller@noao.edu (Beatrice Muller) Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space Subject: Re: NEW UNUSUAL ASTEROID FOUND... Keywords: Asteroid, Comet Message-ID: <1992Jan24.222441.21850@noao.edu> Date: 24 Jan 92 22:24:41 GMT References: <1992Jan24.201444.21555@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> Organization: National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson AZ Lines: 4 More information is on the IAU circular Nr. 5434: It is also the reddest asteroid or comet observed so far! Beatrice Article 11579 of sci.astro: From: jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu (Jim Scotti x2717) Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space Subject: Re: NEW UNUSUAL ASTEROID FOUND... Keywords: Asteroid, Comet Message-ID: <1992Jan26.122414.16446@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> Date: 26 Jan 92 12:24:14 GMT References: <1992Jan24.201444.21555@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> Sender: news@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu Organization: Lunar & Planetary Laboratory, Tucson AZ. Lines: 34 In article <1992Jan24.201444.21555@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> peter@arafel.space.ualberta.ca (Peter Brown) writes: > >NEW OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM ASTEROID/COMET FOUND - DUNCAN STEEL, 1992 January 24th > > >On January 1st an object presently designated SS078 (Spacewatch Survey >object number 078) was discovered by Dr David Rabinowitz using the >Spacewatch Camera at Kitt Peak, Arizona. > The object was discovered on January 9 and re-observed by Spacewatch on January 10 and 13. Images were later found by Carolyn Shoemaker made from Palomar on January 1. It has now been given the asteroidal designation 1992 AD. We expect that more pre-discovery images from opposition passages in the last 5-10 years may be forthcoming as the orbit (and subsequent backwards search ephemerides) is improved. In the weeks following the discovery of (2060) Chiron at the end of 1977, images were found in previous years, for example on the Palomar Sky Survey in the early 1950's & eventually as early as the 1880's! Chiron, however, gets a bit brighter & does not travel as far from the sun as 1992 AD and we don't expect images going back more than a few years. 1992 AD is now approximately Visual magnitde 16.8. At the time of the Palomar Sky Survey in the early 1950's, 1992 AD was near aphelion and would have been fainter than V=22, below the plate limit. --------------------------------------------- Jim Scotti Spacewatch Project {jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu} Lunar & Planetary Laboratory University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 USA --------------------------------------------- Article 11630 of sci.astro: Newsgroups: sci.astro Subject: Re: unusual new asteroid Message-ID: <1992Jan28.091502.1@vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca> From: stooke@vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1992 13:15:02 GMT Sender: news@julian.uwo.ca (USENET News System) Organization: Social Science Computing Laboratory Lines: 13 Regarding the unusual new asteroid SS078: The announcement message noted that it might be as much as 200 km in diameter, 'making it the largest object discovered in the solar system in 15 years'. The last point is not correct. in August 1989 the neptunian satellites Proteus (1989N1) and Larissa (1989N2) were discovered in Voyager 2 images: they are each larger than this new object if 200 km is an upper limit to SS078's size. Proteus is about 400 km in diameter. SS078 would be the largest asteroid discovered in the last decade or so. Phil Stooke --- RemoteAccess 0.03+ * Origin: BAMA//UFINET/UFO_LINK//PARANET (1:363/29) ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************