[meteorite-list] Catch A Comet?

From: Richard Kowalski <damoclid_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:20:47 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <914027.91843.qm_at_web33901.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Thanks for doing the extra research Sterling. Agreed that a rock of a more substantial size would be more satisfying, but it is still the first "second moon" known.

That was an interesting period for CSS. I picked up another close approacher that was later shown to probably be man-made and Eric again found another man-made object that very likely could be "Snoopy", Apollo 10's Lunar Module's ascent stage, which is now in heliocentric orbit...

--
Richard Kowalski
http://fullmoonphotography.net
IMCA #1081
--- On Mon, 9/14/09, Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Catch A Comet?
> To: "Alexander Seidel" <gsac at gmx.net>, "Richard Kowalski" <damoclid at yahoo.com>, meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Monday, September 14, 2009, 12:56 PM
> ???It got a Minor
> Planet number 2006 RH120,
> but so did J002E3, which seems to be a Saturn
> booster...
> 
> ???That fount of all knowledge, the
> Wikipedia, says:
> "However, later analysis shows the body is not affected
> by the pressures of solar radiation and must be a
> dense rocky body or at least regularly shaped. One
> hypothesis is that the object is a piece of lunar rock
> ejected by an impact. '6R10DB9' was the Catalina
> Sky Survey's own discovery designation for this object,
> which usually would only be used on the MPC's NEO
> Confirmation Page (NEOCP) until an IAU designation
> was applied, if the object was classified as a minor
> object.
> It was added on September 14 to the NEOCP and
> subsequently removed with the explanation that it
> 'was not a minor planet.' However, the object was
> later confirmed to be a minor planet."
> 
> http://www.birtwhistle.org/Gallery6R10DB9.htm
> "The Spacewatch II 1.8-m and the Mt. Lemmon 1.5-m
> reflectors in Arizona observed it during the period
> 11 - 17 December 2006 when it was between 2 and
> 3 LD, shining at magnitudes between 19 and 20.
> These observations allowed the orbit to be improved
> enough to be reasonably certain that there had been
> close approaches to Earth as far back as October 1958.
> By perigee in early January 2007 it was fading fast as
> it approached conjunction with the Sun and was not
> observed."
> 
> Obviously, there were no Big Boosters in October
> 1958, only a year after Sputnik!
> 
> Then there were observations that said the rotation
> period was only 2.75 minutes and the brightness
> variation was 1.25 magnitude which makes it sound
> like a booster stage again.
> 
> Then, this guy:
> http://home.gwi.net/~pluto/mpecs/6r1.htm
> says "the area/mass ratio is way too low to be a rocket
> booster. If the object is two or three meters across, it
> would have a mass of a few tons, about what a low-density
> rock might have. I hate to say this, because it seems so
> implausible... but this looks a heck of a lot like a
> natural
> object."
> 
> Not much of a Moon, hard to plant a flag on, awkward
> to walk around, no place to put the barbeque... If we're
> going to have a second Moon, I want something better
> than this.
> 
> 
> Sterling K. Webb
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alexander Seidel"
> <gsac at gmx.net>
> To: "Richard Kowalski" <damoclid at yahoo.com>;
> <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>;
> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 2:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Catch A Comet?
> 
> 
> >> You may remember a few years ago when my
> colleague, Eric Christensen
> >> discovered 6R10DB9, which was Earth's first know
> "Second Moon". albeit a
> >> temporary one.
> > 
> > Dear Richard,
> > 
> > how did this turn out in the end? Did you/they find
> out it might have a cross-sectional profile that, via the
> observed orbit evolution, gave an indication to a man-made
> object, even identifiable somehow as a rocket booster of
> some specific launch from the past, or was it nothing but a
> natural coincidence with a natural object finally...
> > 
> > Just curious,
> > Alex
> > Berlin/Germany
> > ______________________________________________
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> > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
> 
> 
> 
      

Received on Mon 14 Sep 2009 04:20:47 PM PDT