[meteorite-list] 2010 AL30: Bright newly-discovered close approaching object

[Alexander Seidel]

Thanks a bunch, Richard, for this excellent and concise report on the subject!

All my best,
Alex
Berlin/Germany




-------- Original-Nachricht --------

> Alexander Seidel wrote:
> 
> > Can this definitely be ruled out, and if so, why? May be, our
> > other good expert on orbital analysis things, Rob Matson, would 
> > also like to add a few remarks on this. Do you have light curves
> > or reflectance spectra from the object to rule it out?
> 
> 
> Alex,
> 
> Alan Harris wrote this on MPML earlier today:
> 
> "Unlikely to be artificial, it's orbit doesn't resemble any useful
> spacecraft trajectory, and its encounter velocity with the Earth is not
> unusually low, around 9.5 km/sec "v_infinity".  Perfectly ordinary
> Earth-crossing orbit."
> 
> I'm sure he wouldn't mind my quoting him here.
> 
> Many observations have been coming in by both amateur astrometrists and no
> doubt 
> photometrists, and there have been no reports I am aware of that the
> object 
> appears to be anything other than natural.
> 
> You may remember at various times we have recovered objects that are
> man-made, 
> including candidates that were most likely the 3rd stage of Apollo 12,
> "Snoopy", 
> the ascent stage of the Apollo 10 Lunar Module, and my own slightly
> embarrassing 
> "discovery" of Rosetta before it passed the earth for a gravitational
> assist a 
> few years ago. All were identified rapidly as most likely man-made, and
> probable 
> mission origins suggested in very short order there after.
> 
> As Alan states, this one is in a very typical earth-crossing orbit. The
> only 
> thing that makes it marginally interesting is that it is a very close
> approacher.
> 
> Lance Benner reports that his team is trying to get time on the Goldstone
> dish 
> so they can make radar observations early on the 13th. That'll settle once
> and 
> for all if it is natural or man-made and we'll also get an idea of the
> object's 
> shape and it's exact size.
> 
> 
> Jason,
> 
> Jay Melosh et al are pretty well know in the field of impacts. I'm pretty 
> confident in the results that their online impact tool outputs.
> 
> -- 
> Richard Kowalski
> Catalina Sky Survey
> Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
> University of Arizona
> Tucson, AZ  85721
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