[meteorite-list] Happy Birthday, Meteorite Men!

From: Rob Matson <mojave_meteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 13:38:15 -0800
Message-ID: <GOEDJOCBMMEHLEFDHGMMKEOAEHAA.mojave_meteorites_at_cox.net>

Hi All,

First off, happy birthday greetings to Geoff and Steve -- I hope
you both had a fabulous time at your Birthday Bash last night at
the Sky Bar, and that your bar tabs were covered by everyone
else. ;-) I really wish I could have made it to Tucson again
this year, but it's been crunch-time at work getting our ground
software operational for our satellite launch in less than six
months. I owe you both a belated birthday cocktail the next time
our paths cross (hopefully in some farflung strewn field!)

I got an e-mail from Bob Verish this morning, informing me that
I won a Harvey Award last night!! I am honored and humbled and
(as I wrote Geoff privately a little while ago) simultaneously
a bit horrified that I couldn't be there in person last night
to accept it. It would have been a special treat to share the
stage with NEO-hunter-extraordinaire, Richard Kowalski, who I
understand also won a Harvey.

As long as I'm on the subject of asteroids, I'd like to share
with the List a little early birthday gift that I presented
Geoff late last year, but decided to wait until his birthday
to announce publically:

MPC 72991 citation:

(132904) Notkin = 2002 RB237
     Geoffrey Notkin (b. 1961) is co-host of the popular Science Channel
series Meteorite Men and author of over 100 articles on meteoritics,
paleontology and the arts. A discoverer of meteorites on four continents,
he has also made documentaries for Discovery, National Geographic, PBS, the
BBC and the History Channel.

- - - - -

Minor planet dynamical group: Hilda
Semi-major axis: 3.9982764 a.u.
Inclination: 3.55428 degrees
Eccentricity: 0.1440889
Perihelion distance: 3.422169 a.u.
Aphelion distance: 4.574384 a.u.
Absolute magnitude: 14.4

Astrometry from 89 observations at 6 oppositions spanning 1995-2010
Last observed: 10/9/2010 by station G96
Discovery date : 2002 09 12
Discovery site : Palomar
Discoverer : Matson, R.

The Hildas are interesting in that they are in a 2:3 orbital resonance
with Jupiter: they complete three orbits for every two Jovian orbits.
The first Hilda asteroid was discovered in 1875. Currently there are
only ~1100 Hildas known, which is less than 1/4 of a percent of all
known asteroids. They are very dark objects, with a mean albedo of
only 0.044 -- similar to cometary nuclei. Based on this albedo and
an absolute magnitude of 14.4, (132904) has an approximate size of
8.4 km. That's a cross-sectional area very close to the size of
Manhattan, with which Geoff should be quite familiar. :-) Assuming
a bulk density of 1.5 g/cm^3, that corresponds to a mass of around
4.6 x 10^11 metric tons -- around a half trillion metric tons!

Congratulations, Geoff, and welcome to the minor planet club!

Best wishes,
Rob
Received on Sat 05 Feb 2011 04:38:15 PM PST