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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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Orbits and when to get excited: a thread
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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There's a lot of excitement in the last day or so about a candidate near-Earth asteroid that has the temporary designation #gb00234. This object is currently listed on the Possible Comet Confirmation Page minorplanetcenter.net/iau/NEO/pccp_t…
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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Entirely routinely and going on all the time, new moving things in the sky get found and added to the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page of @MinorPlanetCtr minorplanetcenter.net/iau/NEO/toconf…
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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If they turn out to be a little fuzzy dot, with a cometary coma, they are moved from that list to the Possible Comet Confirmation Page [I'm simplifying a little, but broad-brush]. This step requires More Observations
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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When the orbit is sufficiently well known, @MinorPlanetCtr issues a Minor Planet Electronic Circular. minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/RecentMPE…
This step requires a fair bit of knowledge about the object's orbit. Which comes from observations
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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Until the arc of an orbit is sufficiently long, there are really strong uncertainties in what its orbit can be. The ways this gets resolved? More observations
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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This is not the first object since 2017/1I, better known as ʻOumuamua, to show a hyperbolic orbit. Several short-arcs have flourished and slid slowly into the demise of straightforward parabolas. What it took? More observations
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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Orbits are determined by mathematical fits to the astrometry that's sent to the MPC by observers all around the world. At the moment, there are some weird residuals in the fit to the orbit of this candidate object. You know what will resolve that? More observations
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Michele Bannister
@astrokiwi
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11. ruj |
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I too will be delighted to see a second observable interstellar object. And I'm absolutely sure @MinorPlanetCtr are watching the incoming astrometry. For now? No MPEC yet. Sometimes, we just have to wait for the motion of the heavens. And make...more observations.
/fin
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Naïve Bayesian
@naivebayesian
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11. ruj |
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Thank you for keeping us updated.
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Daniel Fischer
@cosmos4u
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11. ruj |
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What is that screenshot of exactly? The - linked - online circular doesn't have any of the text.
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Wesley Fraser
@wtfastro
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11. ruj |
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Here we go again
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Wesley Fraser
@wtfastro
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12. ruj |
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Ou'twoamua
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★ govertschilling
@govertschilling
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11. ruj |
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why don't they use the letter I again (for interstellar)?
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John Carney
@johncarneyau
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11. ruj |
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Because that’s far from confirmed
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Larry R. Nittler 🚀🎹🌖☄️
@LarryNittler
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11. ruj |
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So what are the elements? ( not shown on mpec screenshot)
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Amanda Stadermann
@acstadermann
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11. ruj |
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minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K19/K19RA…
At the bottom of that page.
Notably:
e 3.0794827
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Meithan West
@meithan42
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12. ruj |
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Is the uncertainty on the eccentricity good enough to say this is (very?) probably interstellar at this point?
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Thread Reader App
@threadreaderapp
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12. ruj |
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Hi! please find the unroll here: Thread by @astrokiwi: "Orbits and when to get excited: a thread There's a lot of excitement in the last day or so about a candidate near-Earth […]" #gb00234 threadreaderapp.com/thread/1171720…
Enjoy :) 🤖
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