Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Digest: Eps.465 & 466: Returnee & Dangerous Impactor
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- In 2010 Andrea Boattini discovered asteroid 2010 WC9 streaking through the constellation of Pegasus. Richard Kowalski re-discovered 2010 WC9 a week before it passed about half the Moon’s distance from us at 29,000 miles per hour
- Jess Johnson discovered 4,300 foot diameter 2018 KV in the constellation Hercules.
Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona. This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.
He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.
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Transcript:
465-Returnee
Almost ten years ago my then Catalina Sky Survey teammate Andrea Boattini was observing with our 60 in telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he discovered asteroid 2010 WC9 streaking through the constellation of Pegasus. 25 and a half hours later, 2010 WC9 became too faint to track as it rapidly moved away from planet Earth and was lost. Recently, using the same telescope, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Richard Kowalski discovered a rapidly approaching space rock in the constellation of Hercules. Since this asteroid appeared to be about to come very close to planet Earth, telescopes at a dozen observatories around the world tracked it’s path. After 2 days of intensive observations, scientists at the Minor Planet Center used these data to identify it as Andrea’s lost discovery. A week after Richard re-discovered 2010 WC9, it passed about half the Moon’s distance from us at 29,000 miles per hour. 2010 WC9 is significantly larger than the small asteroid which exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia injuring nearly 1,500 people and breaking thousands of windows in February of 2013. Fortunately 2010 WC9 missed us and will not come very near again 2188 AD. If it had been on a collision trajectory, Richard’s early re-discovery could have been used to warn people in the impact area to seek shelter in hurricane proof structures.
466-Dangerous Impactor
Statistically the 892 known Earth approaching asteroids larger than 1 km or 3,280 feet in diameter represents more than 90% of those which are thought to exist. It was thus unusual when my team, the Catalina Sky Survey, discovered two new such large asteroids, in less than a week. The largest of them is 2018 KV. This huge 4,300 foot diameter space rock was discovered by my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Jess Johnson as it was streaking through the constellation of Hercules. This giant space rock, now named 2018 KV, orbits the Sun once every 1,542 days on a path which can bring it close to Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. Fortunately on it’s current path, Jess’s discovery, 2018 KV, can never come closer than 61 times the Moon’s distance from us. According to the Purdue University and Imperial College of London’s impact calculator an asteroid this size slams into the Earth every 300,000 years or so, making a crater 7 miles in diameter and 2,000 feet deep in sedimentary rock, creating the effects of a magnitude 7.5 Earthquake 100 miles from ground zero. If such a large asteroid entered the ocean 20 miles from shore in water 1,000 feet deep it would create a tsunami 200 to 400 feet high. Asteroid hunters estimate that there are less than 100 of these potentially devastating space rocks yet to be discovered and hope that none of them has our number on it.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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