Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Digest: Eps. 509 & 510: Close & Fourth Closest
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- Hannes Growler discovered asteroid 2018 UL in the constellation of Cetus.
- Greg Leonard discovered a Toyota RAV4 sized space rock, now named 2018 UA.
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:
509 – Close
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Growler was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Cetus with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona when he discovered a relatively bright object streaking through the night sky. After Hannes posted his observations on the Minor Planet Center’s Near Earth Object Confirmation Page his discovery was tracked by telescopes in Arizona, Ukraine, England, Croatia, Italy, and Illinois. Scientist used these data to calculate this new object’s path about the Sun, estimate its size, and give it the name 2018 UL. We now know that 28 and a half hours before Hannes spotted it, this Subaru Outback sized object had passed less than 40% of the Earth-Moon distance from our Moon. Further, ten and one half hours a zooming past our Moon, 2018 UL came to less than 60% of the Moon’s distance from humanity. Until recently a very close approach discovery like 2018 UL was rare, however, due to improvements in telescopes, cameras, and computers asteroid hunters are now finding a significant number of these small celestial visitors to our neighborhood every month. Astronomers suspect there are millions of small space rocks like 2018 UL and that one of them enters the Earth’s atmosphere every 10 months or so producing a spectacular light show and rains fragments of itself onto the Earth’s surface for meteorite hunters to discover.
510 – Fourth Closest
Ten hours and 46 minutes after my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard discovered a Toyota RAV4 sized space rock, now named 2018 UA, streaking through the constellation of Pegasus at 8.8 miles/second, this tiny asteroid passed less than 1/2 the distance of the communications satellites to the surface of planet Earth. So far asteroid hunters have discovered more than 450 space rocks which have passed closer than the Moon’s distance from us. On this list of 450, Greg’s discovery, 2018 UA is the 4th closest that an asteroid has come to the Earth since 1900 and not crashed into it. It is likely that in the distant future 2018 UA will impact the Earth, our Moon, Venus or Mars. According to the Purdue University and Imperial College of London’s Impact Calculator, an asteroid the size of 2018 UA enters the Earth’s atmosphere four of five times a year, bursts into fragments at an altitude of 167,000 feet, and scatters fragments onto the Earth’s surface for meteorite hunters to discover. Greg’s early discovery means that if 2018 UA had been on an impact trajectory asteroid hunters would have been able to give you a heads up to go outside to observe a spectacular fireball meteor and with the assistance of Doppler weather RADAR might be able to suggest where you could find a piece of it on the ground. Discovering a space rock may be in your future.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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