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

From: Richard Kowalski <kowalski_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:59:32 -0700
Message-ID: <4B4CE2B4.4070503_at_lpl.arizona.edu>

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

Received on Tue 12 Jan 2010 03:59:32 PM PST