Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 801 & 802: Jacqui’s PHA & Bok Comet
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s two stories:
- My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Jacqueline Fazekas was asteroid hunting with our small but mighty Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona when she spotted and then reported a bright moving point of light in the night sky to the Minor Planet Center. Given the rate of human caused climate change one has to wonder about the state of our planet in January of 2163 when 2024 ER is predicted to pass safely some 66 lunar distances from humanity.
- My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Kacper Wierzchos was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Draco with the Steward Observatory Bok 90 inch telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona when he discovered a faint fuzzy object moving through the night sky.Given the global warming which is happening in 2024 one has to wonder about the state of humanity and our home planet when comet C/2024 G1 (Wierzchos) returns to the inner solar system in 3331 CE.
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.
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: Paul M. Sutter, Chris Nealen, Frank Frankovic, Frank Tippin, Jako Danar, Michael Freedman, Nik Whitehead, Rani Bush, Ron Diehl, Steven Emert, Brett Duane, Don Swartwout, Vladimir Bogdanov, Steven Kluth, Steve Nerlich, Phyllis Foster, Michael W, James K Wood, Katrina Ince, Cherry Wood, Brett Duane, Dmytro O
Please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Or please visit our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy
Transcript:
EP. 801 – Jacqui’s PHA
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate, Jacqueline Faiscus, was asteroid hunting with our small but mighty Schmidt telescope on Mount Bigelow, Arizona, when she spotted and then reported a bright, moving point of light in the night sky to the Minor Planet Center. For the next 55 hours, this new object was tracked by 18 different observatories around the world as it moved from the constellation of Eratinus to the constellation of Lepus.
Astronomers used all of these observations to calculate the preliminary parameters for its 3.2-year-long path about the Sun, estimate its size, and give it the name 2024 ER. Depending on its chemical composition, Jackie’s discovery is likely to have a diameter which would fit inside a large football stadium. 2024 ER’s size, that its orbit crosses our path about the Sun, and that it could come to about 5 lunar distances from our home planet, earns it NASA’s Potentially Hazardous Asteroid status.
An asteroid of this size enters the Earth’s atmosphere once every 28,000 years or so and could cause devastation to a large city. Fortunately, in 2024, Jackie’s discovery, 2024 ER, missed the Earth by more than 22 lunar distances. Rest assured that asteroid hunters will continue to keep track of 2024 ER to make sure that its orbit does not change to make it a threat when it comes near Jupiter, Mars, or other objects in space. Given the rate of human-caused climate change, one has to wonder about the state of our planet in January of 2163 when 2024 ER is predicted to pass safely some 66 lunar distances from humanity
EP. 802 – Bok Comet
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate, Caspar Wierzus, was asteroid hunting in the constellation of Draco with the Stewart Observatory BOC 90-inch telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona, when he discovered a faint fuzzy object moving through the night sky. After Caspar reported his observations to the Minor Planet Center, for the next 8 days his discovery was imaged and tracked by astronomers in Arizona, Japan, Austria, Italy, Tican, and France. Verifying it to be a comet, scientists gave it the name C2024 G1 Wierzus and were able to calculate that its 1,307-year-long path about the sun is nearly perpendicular to the plane of our solar system.
In 717, Comet C2024 G1 Wierzus last came closest to our star. In that year, the city of Constantinople was under siege as more than 100,000 soldiers and some 2,000 ships were in a battle over control of the access to the Black Sea from the Mediterranean. After that, Comet C2024 G1 Wierzus traveled south till 1371, at which point it was some 235 times the Earth-Sun distance below the plane of our solar system, where our sun appears 55,000 times fainter than it does to us. From this great distance, Comet C2024 G1 Wierzus began its current plunge toward the inner solar system, allowing it to be discovered by CASPER in April of 2024, on its way to about 4 times the Earth-Sun distance from our star 6 months later. Given the global warming which is happening in 2024, one has to wonder about the state of humanity on our home planet when C2024 G1 Wierzus returns to the inner solar system in 3331.
For Travelers in the Night, this is Dr. Al Grauer. Stay tuned.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Planetary Science Institute. Audio post production by me, Richard Drumm, project management by Avivah Yamani, and hosting donated by libsyn.com. This content is released under a creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. Please share what you love but don’t sell what’s free.
This show is made possible thanks to the generous donations of people like you! Please consider supporting our show on Patreon.com/CosmoQuestX and get access to bonus content. Without your passion and contribution, we won’t be able to share the stories and inspire the worlds. We invite you to join our community of storytellers and share your voice with listeners worldwide.
As we wrap up today’s episode, we are looking forward to unravel more stories from the Universe. With every new discovery from ground-based and space-based observatories, and each milestone in space exploration, we come closer to understanding the cosmos and our place within it.
Until next time let the stars guide!