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MPEC 2018-E86 : 2015 TH367

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M.P.E.C. 2018-E86 Issued 2018 Mar. 13, 20:52 UT The Minor Planet Electronic Circulars contain information on unusual minor planets and routine data on comets. They are published on behalf of Division F of the International Astronomical Union by the Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network MPC@CFA.HARVARD.EDU URL https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/ ISSN 1523-6714 2015 TH367 Observations: K15Ta7H*5C2015 10 13.36245 02 21 54.932+19 17 30.56 25.9 rcEE086568 K15Ta7H 5C2015 10 13.45462 02 21 54.712+19 17 29.43 25.9 rcEE086568 K15Ta7H 5C2015 10 13.60243 02 21 54.352+19 17 27.88 25.9 rcEE086568 K15Ta7H 5C2015 11 07.30446302 20 53.087+19 12 24.85 26.0 rcEE086568 K15Ta7H 5C2015 11 07.36070502 20 52.943+19 12 23.98 26.0 rcEE086568 K15Ta7H C2016 09 26.27314 02 23 51.533+19 23 06.81 25.9 rcEE086304 K15Ta7H C2016 09 26.31303 02 23 51.417+19 23 06.30 25.8 rcEE086304 K15Ta7H 5C2016 10 02.55592902 23 38.328+19 22 11.30 25.8 rcEE086568 Observer details: 304 Las Campanas Observatory. Observer S. S. Sheppard. 6.5-m Magellan-Baade telescope + CCD. 568 Mauna Kea. Observers D. J. Tholen, S. S. Sheppard, C. Trujillo. 8.2-m reflector + CCD. Orbital elements: 2015 TH367 Epoch 2018 Mar. 23.0 TT = JDT 2458200.5 MPC M 57.53802 (2000.0) P Q n 0.00127684 Peri. 19.49259 -0.10104823 +0.97965333 a 84.1480745 Node 245.02947 -0.93629492 -0.15257042 e 0.6602986 Incl. 11.02768 -0.33636451 +0.13039029 P 772 H 6.6 G 0.15 U 3 Residuals in seconds of arc 151013 568 0.0 0.1+ 151107 568 0.0 0.0 160926 304 0.3- 0.0 151013 568 0.0 0.0 151107 568 0.0 0.1- 161002 568 0.0 0.1- 151013 568 0.0 0.1+ 160926 304 0.2+ 0.1+ Ephemeris: 2015 TH367 a,e,i = 84.15, 0.66, 11 q = 28.585 Date TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase V 2018 02 11 02 21 42.7 +19 04 28 89.3586 89.1501 77.5 0.6 26.2 ... 2018 02 26 02 22 00.3 +19 04 57 89.6206 89.1675 62.5 0.6 26.2 ... 2018 03 06 02 22 13.4 +19 05 32 89.7485 89.1768 54.5 0.5 26.2 ... 2018 03 12 02 22 24.8 +19 06 08 89.8374 89.1838 48.6 0.5 26.2 2018 03 13 02 22 26.8 +19 06 15 89.8515 89.1850 47.6 0.5 26.2 2018 03 14 02 22 28.9 +19 06 22 89.8655 89.1861 46.7 0.5 26.2 ... 2018 03 20 02 22 41.8 +19 07 07 89.9448 89.1931 40.8 0.4 26.2 ... 2018 03 28 02 23 00.6 +19 08 17 90.0378 89.2024 33.0 0.3 26.2 ... 2018 04 12 02 23 39.5 +19 10 55 90.1690 89.2199 18.7 0.2 26.2 A. U. Tomatic (C) Copyright 2018 MPC M.P.E.C. 2018-E86

MPEC number: Enter an MPEC number in one of the following forms:</s>An interstellar asteroid that drifted past our sun recently has been confirmed to have originated from another solar system.

Our solar system has many visiting chunks of space debris passing through, but we have never found one that has come from another solar system – until now.

A team of astronomers has identified one such cosmic traveller, dubbed 1I/2017 or ‘Oumuamua (the Hawaiian word for scout).

According to The Guardian, the object was first spotted travelling past the sun last month.

At first glance, it looked very similar to the comets and asteroids seen in our own solar system. However, unlike this space debris, ‘Oumuamua’s orbit was calculated as being impossible to achieve by one that originated in our own system and could be one of as many as 10,000 that are nearby.

The object is believed to be an incredibly dark red colour, with 96pc of all light that hits it being absorbed.

The appearance of red means that it contains organic, carbon-based molecules. This could add even greater credence to the theory of transpermia, whereby comets and asteroids containing organic molecules could have collided with Earth and ‘seeded’ life here.

Findings on ‘Oumuamua have been published by two sets of researchers from the University of Hawaii and UCLA, respectively.

The team from Hawaii calculated that ‘Oumuamua is just 400 metres long with a rotation once every 7.3 hours.

The UCLA team estimated that the other 10,000 or so objects similar to the asteroid could be located closer to our sun than Neptune, with three objects arriving and three leaving our solar system on a daily basis.

By better understanding how ‘Oumuamua and other objects like it enter our solar system, we can learn more about how planets formed in their native star system.</s>A sizable space rock cruised through our corner of the galaxy Wednesday without doing any harm, but it did provide a rare opportunity for even amateur astronomers to catch an asteroid fly-by.

Asteroid 2017 VR12 passed by at a safe distance of about 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers), which is 3.76 times the distance between the moon and Earth. While that's a big gap, it's still close in cosmic terms. Because it's big enough to do major damage if it does one day hit us it's classified as "potentially hazardous."

Most notable about this asteroid, though, is how bright it is. On its approach in February and as it now heads away from us, it is as bright as some stars, as demonstrated in the above video captured by astronomer Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project and Michael Schwartz from Arizona's Tenagra Observatories.

The brief clip is actually 240 images taken early Wednesday morning over two hours and sped up 500 times to show the asteroid moving against the backdrop of stars and the occasional satellite or perhaps tiny meteor streaking by in the foreground.

Amateur astronomer Brian Ottum also managed to capture video of the bright asteroid:

As asteroids go, 2017 VR12 is medium-sized. With a diameter of roughly 900 feet (274 meters), it would stand about as tall as the 71-story Trump Building on Wall Street in Manhattan. In other words, it's fair to say both 2017 VR12 and the Trump Building are big, but not huuuge.

This is probably as close as this asteroid will be in our lifetimes, but it won't be a total stranger. It will make a more distant pass in just eight years and then come nearly as close again in 2079.

Solving for XX: The tech industry seeks to overcome outdated ideas about "women in tech."</s>An apocalyptic asteroid impact is just one of a number of doomsday scenarios that could wipe out all life on the planet.

Now, experts have found that a nuke with the power of 200 Hiroshima bombs would be needed to stop a 650 foot (200 metre) wide space rock from striking the Earth.

Russian scientists modelled the explosion necessary to destroy the asteroid by creating miniature models and blasting them with a laser.

By scaling up their results, they were able to calculate the force required to obliterate a deadly object on a collision course with our homeworld.

The finding was made by experts at Rosatom, the Russian state's atomic energy corporation, and three physicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).

There are two basic options when it comes to protecting the planet from a collision with an asteroid.

They either have to be deflected or blown into pieces, most of which will miss us or burn up in the atmosphere.

The authors of the paper explored the second option, by modelling the effects of a powerful shock wave released by a nuclear explosion on an asteroid's surface.

The research team showed that a brief laser pulse aimed at a miniature replica of an asteroid produces destructive effects similar to those of a nuclear explosion on an actual space rock.

The distributions of heat and pressure predicted for the real event generally matched those measured in the scaled-down experiment.

'At the moment, there are no asteroid threats, so our team has the time to perfect this technique for use later in preventing a planetary disaster,' said study co-author Vladimir Yufa, an associate professor at MIPT, in a written statement.

'We’re also looking into the possibility of deflecting an asteroid without destroying it and hope for international engagement.'

Asteroids are celestial bodies consisting of carbon, silicon, metal, and sometimes ice.

Scientists usually classify objects larger than 3.3 ft (one metre) as asteroids, although this lower limit is disputed.

On the other end of the scale, asteroids get as big as 560 miles (900 km) across.

Travelling at speeds of up to 12 miles per second (20 km/s), such giants pose a threat of obliterating all life on Earth.

Agencies across the globe have programmes in places to map rocks as they move through our solar system.

For example, a 100 foot (30 metre) asteroid called 2012TC4 passed within 27,000 miles (43,000 km) of Antarctica in October 2017.

Astronomers described this distance, which is around one eighth of the distance of the moon's 239,000 mile (384,000 km) orbit, as 'damn close.'

Nasa has previously claimed that the planet is overdue a huge asteroid strike.

Professor Stephen Hawkins was among scientists who believe it is only a matter of time before the Earth is destroyed by an asteroid impact, similar to the one that killed off the dinosaurs.

This is why it is vital that we have measures in place to deal with an asteroid that's on a collision course, if it is detected.

For their laser model to be accurate, the researchers made sure the density and rigidity of the small-scale asteroid - and even its shape - mimicked the real thing.

Thanks to this precise correspondence, they were able to directly calculate the required energy on the actual asteroid from the energy of a laser pulse destroying its miniature replica.

For example, to eliminate a 657 foot (200 metre) asteroid, the bomb needs to deliver the energy equivalent of three megatons of TNT.

This was calculated once the team worked out that it took a 500-joule laser pulse to destroy a model 0.3 to 0.4 inches (eight to ten millimetres) in diameter.

Tsar Bomba, or 'king of bombs' built by the Soviet Union in 1961, had an energy output of about 58.6 megatons, compared to the Hiroshima bomb's 15 kilotons.

The research team also came up with a technology for manufacturing artificial asteroid material.

Its composition corresponds to that of chondrite, or stony, meteorites which account for about 90 per cent of asteroid remains reaching the surface of the Earth.

The properties of the model asteroid, including its chemical composition, density, porosity, and rigidity, were adjusted during manufacturing.

The replicas were made using the data obtained from the chondrite meteorite recovered from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul.

This was the largest fragment of the asteroid that entered the Earth’s atmosphere in February 2013, exploding over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.

In some of the experiments, the laser was targeted at a cavity made in the miniature asteroids ahead of time.

Experts found that a buried nuclear bomb would be more powerful than one on the surface.

The research team plans to expand the study by experimenting with asteroids made of different materials, including iron, nickel, and ice.

They also intend to identify how the shape of the asteroid and the presence of cavities on its surface affect its destruction.

The full results of the study were published in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics.
2015 TH367 (previously known as V774104), a 100–400 kilometer asteroid, is announced as possibly the fourth most distant known Solar System object from the Sun at nearly 90 (±10) times Earth's distance from the Sun.