Happy Asteroid Day

[+Glafnazur]

Happy Asteroid Day everyone 🙂 

 

Never heard of it? Me neither but here's what good old Wikipedia has to say about it and there's even a website https://asteroidday.org/

 

 

Asteroid Day (also known as International Asteroid Day) is an annual global event which is held on June 30, the anniversary of the Tunguska event in 1908 when a meteor air burst levelled about 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi) of forest in Siberia, Russia.

 

Asteroid Day was cofounded in 2014 (the year after the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor air burst) by physicist Stephen Hawking, B612 Foundation president Danica Remy, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, filmmaker Grigorij Richters, and Brian May (Queen guitarist and astrophysicist). Remy, Schweickart, Richters, and May initiated Asteroid Day in October 2014, which they announced during a press conference. It was launched on December 3, 2014.

 

In 2016, the United Nations proclaimed Asteroid Day be observed globally on June 30 every year in its resolution. The event aims to raise awareness about asteroids and what can be done to protect the Earth, its families, communities, and future generations from a catastrophic event.

Edited June 30, 2023 by Glafnazur
Typo

[+Bino-viewer]

I've always had an interest in asteroids and PHA's Dave.

 

I'd quite to track down 99942 Apophis and observe it at some point.

It orbit is similar in duration to that of Earth, and of course comes very close to us in 2029,

only 19000 miles which is less than a lot of geostationary satellites.

Its 340m wide, so a fair old lump.

If we are still around then, it will be an exciting event to observe.

 

[+Glafnazur]

3 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

I've always had an interest in asteroids and PHA's Dave.

 

I'd quite to track down 99942 Apophis and observe it at some point.

It orbit is similar in duration to that of Earth, and of course comes very close to us in 2029,

only 19000 miles which is less than a lot of geostationary satellites.

Its 340m wide, so a fair old lump.

If we are still around then, it will be an exciting event to observe.

 

Just checked on Stellarium and it will be above the horizon from mid March to nearly the end of April. It looks like it will reach mag 11.99 on 10th April and it will be in the constellation of Crater, so quite low, it will be at it's highest point on 12th April in Hydra.

 

 

 

 

[+Bino-viewer]

Magnitude +11.99    ??  😯

 

Oh well, that will be a no show then.

I'd read it would be naked eye visibility. Perhaps the media have hyped it up.

 

But i guess despite its size and close proximity to us, it all depends on what its made of,

and how much light it will reflect....

Edited June 30, 2023 by Bino-viewer
typos

[+Glafnazur]

Just looked on Wikipedia and they have it as 3.1, so we will be able to see it Rob. NASA also say it will be visible with the naked eye, so Stellarium must be wrong, thankfully 🙂 

 

During the 2029 approach, Apophis's brightness will peak at magnitude 3.1, easily visible to the naked eye if one knows where to look, with a maximum angular speed of 42° per hour. The maximum apparent angular diameter will be ~2 arcseconds. This is roughly equivalent to the angular diameter of Neptune from earth. Therefore, the asteroid will be barely resolved by ground-based telescopes not equipped with adaptive optics but very well resolved by those that are

[+Bino-viewer]

2 arcseconds like Neptune sounds about right, but just as long as it's brighter than Neptune !!

I have a tough job with Neptune at the best of times here....!!