[meteorite-list] HERMES IS FOUND (...didn't even know he was lost!)

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:30 2004
Message-ID: <20031016030841.10559.qmail_at_web60302.mail.yahoo.com>

Here is some background info' on the asteroid that Rob
Matson reported on earlier:
Bob V.

------------- Appended Message -------------
From: "john kagey" <scopebuilder.1_at_juno.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 02:34:23 -0000
Subject: HERMES IS FOUND

After eluding astronomers for 66 years, the long-lost
asteroid Hermes has finally been retrieved.

Early on October 15th, Brian A. Skiff (Lowell
Observatory Near-Earth Object Search, Arizona) sent
measurements of four CCD images obtained with the 23-
inch Catalina Schmidt telescope to the Minor Planet
Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the center,
Timothy B. Spahr identified the suspect with other
measurements submitted in the past seven weeks --
but not recognized as unusual -- by LONEOS and by the
Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project
in New Mexico. In addition, quick action by James
Young (Table Mountain Observatory, California) secured
a confirmation just before dawn on the 15th.

Judging by its brightness, Hermes is a minor planet
about 1 to 2 kilometers across. So it could be
somewhat larger than the 1937 estimates. In a famous
exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, New
York, Hermes was depicted as a sphere about the size
of Central Park.

Hermes is by no means the last of the "lost [Apollo]
Asteroids" -- many thousands of others in the
Minor Planet Center's database fall in this category
because they could not be followed long enough for an
accurate orbit to be determined. But Hermes is by far
the most famous.
It was discovered by Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg,
Germany, on October 28, 1937, and tracked for only
five days. Although never officially numbered, it
has been known by the name Hermes ever since.

In late October 2003, Hermes will be bright enough
(magnitude 13) to be seen in 8-inch and larger amateur
telescopes as it races westward across Cetus, Pisces,
and Aquarius. By month's end it will be moving
7 degrees per day and gaining.
Unlike the situation in 1937,
when Hermes skimmed to within 800,000 km of our planet
(two Earth-Moon distances), it will pass about nine
times that far on November 4, 2003.
Nevertheless, the possibility of future close
encounters definitely puts this object in the PHA
(potentially hazardous asteroid) class.

-------------- End of Appended Message --------------
 


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
Received on Wed 15 Oct 2003 11:08:41 PM PDT