Orbit-Orbit Identification – The Case of 1984 QY1
As many NEOphiles may have noticed, the largest of the “lost” NEOs was identified recently by Andrea Boattini (of the CSS), with some help from Giovanni Valsecchi (link). The MPC contributed by adding...
View ArticleHow the MPC Defines “Interesting”: An Overview of Digest2
Sonia Keys, one of the MPC programmers, has written the first in a series of articles that will explain how the program Digest2 works. In short, Digest2 looks at a recently observed object moving...
View ArticleToo Close for Comfort? The Near-Earth Approach of 2011 MD
On June 27th 2011, a chunk of rock about the size of a school bus (though maybe as large as an 18-wheeler) whizzed by Earth at a distance of around 12,000 km (7,460 miles) from the ground. Discovered...
View ArticleClose, but no Cigar: The Flyby of Asteroid 2005 YU55
Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered in late 2005 (duh!) by Bob McMillan and Jim Scotti of Spacewatch, at the Lunar and Planetary Lab within the University of Arizona. Once the orbit was refined thanks to...
View ArticleThe Flyby Clock: Visualizing a Century of Asteroid Encounters
Due to the interest sparked by the upcoming flyby of 2012 DA14, I thought it would be helpful to place its flyby in an historic perspective. To do so, I put together a visualization of all the flybys...
View ArticleThe MPC Talks at the UN
The Scientific and Technical subcommittee of the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) held its 50th meeting this past February 11-22, 2013 in Vienna, Austria. Attending as...
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