[meteorite-list] New Retrograde Asteroid Found

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 09:56:38 -0700
Message-ID: <49FC7B46.8060401_at_meteoritesusa.com>

A new asteroid was found April 29th orbiting the sun backwards.
Calculating the orbit of the new asteroid is difficult because
observational errors could cause a mis-projected orbit. This asteroid
was close enough

Observational Data: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K09/K09J04.html

Article:

Nearby asteroid found orbiting sun backwards

23:50 01 May 2009 by Jeff Hecht
For similar stories, visit the Solar System and Comets and Asteroids
Topic Guides
The discovery of a 2- to 3-kilometre-wide asteroid in an orbit that goes
backwards has set astronomers scratching their heads. It comes closer to
Earth than any other object in a 'retrograde' orbit, and astronomers
think they should have spotted it before.

The object, called 2009 HC82, was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey
in Arizona on the morning of 29 April.

 From observations of its position by five different groups, Sonia Keys
of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center calculated
it orbits the sun every 3.39 years on a path that ventures within 3.5
million km of the Earth's orbit. Combined with its size, that makes 2009
HC82 a potentially hazardous asteroid.

What's really unusual is that the calculated orbit is inclined 155? to
the plane of the Earth's orbit. That means that as it orbits the Sun, it
actually travels backwards compared to the planets. It is only the 20th
asteroid known in a retrograde orbit, a very rare group. None of the
others comes as close to the Earth.

SOURCE:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17073-nearby-asteroid-found-orbiting-sun-backwards.html

-- 
Regards,
Eric Wichman
Meteorites USA
904-236-5394

Received on Sat 02 May 2009 12:56:38 PM PDT