Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 793 & 794: Close Space Rock & An Apollo Space Rock to Follow
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s two stories:
- Perhaps the most dangerous Amor asteroid is 2006 HZ51 .It was discovered by my team the Catalina Sky Survey. Fortunately the closest 2006 HZ51 will come to our home planet is June 11 of 2116 when it will pass us harmlessly 26 times the distance to our moon away from us.
- Recently my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Vivian Carjaval was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Ursa Minor with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow when she discovered, 2024 BR4, a two football field diameter Earth approaching asteroid.Vivian’s Apollo asteroid discovery poses no threat to humans since 2024 is as close as it will come to Earth in the next few hundred years.
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:
Ep 793- Close Space Rock
My Kettling the Sky survey teammate, David Rankin, was asteroid hunting with our 60-inch telescope on Mount Lemmon, Arizona, when he spotted a rapidly moving point of light in the constellation of Cancer. Telescopes in West Slovenia, France, and Arizona tracked it.
These data enabled scientists to calculate a preliminary orbit and give it the name 2024 BT3. When David first spotted this large U-Haul truck-sized space rock, the Earth and 2024 BT3’s orbital paths about the Sun were causing them to hurdle towards each other at 3 miles per second. Fortunately, there was not a collision when 7.27 days later, 2024 BT3 came to about 14 times the lunar distance from our home planet. According to the Purdue University and Imperial College of London’s Impact Effects Program, an asteroid the size of 2024 BT3 enters the Earth’s atmosphere once every 13 years, creates a light and sound show as it explodes harmlessly in our atmosphere, and perhaps rains pieces of itself onto the ground for meteorite hunters to discover. 2024 BT3 is classified as an Amur-type asteroid, which means that it approaches Earth from the outer solar system but does not cross our path about the Sun. Perhaps the most dangerous Amur asteroid is 2006 HZ51.
It was discovered by my team, the Kettling the Sky survey. The impact of such a 2,000-foot-diameter object could create a 3-mile-diameter crater in sedimentary rock. Fortunately, the closest 2006 HZ51 will come to our home planet is June 11, 2116, when it will pass us harmlessly 26 times the distance to our moon away from us.
Ep 794 – An Apollo Space Rock to Follow
Recently, my Kettling the Sky survey teammate, Vivian Carvuhal, was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Ursa Minor with our Schmidt telescope on Mt.
Bigelow, Arizona, when she discovered 2024 BR4, a two-football-field-diameter Earth-approaching asteroid. At the time Vivian discovered it, it was traveling far from the plane of the solar system, where all of the planets and most of the asteroids are located. It is classified as an Apollo asteroid since its orbit crosses the Earth’s path around the Sun twice a year, as this large space rock comes from farther to closer to the Sun than we do.
Some Apollo asteroids cross the orbit of Mars, but 2024 BR4 does not. Fifteen days after Vivian discovered it, 2024 BR4 came to a bit less than 12 lunar distances from our home planet. Vivian’s Apollo asteroid discovery poses no threat to humans since 2024 is as close as it will come to Earth in the next few hundred years.
On the other hand, there are more than 2,000 other Apollo asteroids that asteroid hunters are keeping track of because NASA has determined they could pose a threat to our home planet in the far distant future. Even small Apollo asteroids are a source for concern. In 2013, a small 59-foot-diameter Apollo asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, releasing about 30 times the energy of the atomic bomb which was detonated over Hiroshima.
This event produced a fireball meteor brighter than the Sun, caused 1,491 people to seek medical treatment, mainly for flying glass injuries, damaged 7,200 buildings in six cities, and scattered meteorites over a wide region. For Travelers in the Night, this is Dr. Al Grauer. Stay tuned.
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365 Days of Astronomy
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