Cole Gregg is a grad student at Western University in Ontario, Canada. Like the rest of us, Gregg is stuck working from home, unable to travel. He has, however, remote access to the Astrocamp telescope in Nerpio, Spain. While using the telescope on November 18, Gregg noticed an object moving through his field of view that turned out to be an as-yet-undiscovered asteroid. He and his professor worked together and determined that the asteroid is about 50-100 meters in diameter and passed through near-Earth space.

The asteroid now has the temporary designation ALA2xH while the Minor Planet Center confirms the observation and determines that it is unique. Unfortunately, weather conditions have not been cooperative on the mountaintop where the remote observatory sits. We hope Gregg’s discovery is confirmed and look forward to a new telephone number for his asteroid.

More Information

Western University press release