----------------------------------- ovidiuv 16 Iul 2014 19:58 Al doilea NEA descoperit de EURONEAR cu INT si ajutorul OSN ----------------------------------- Noi salutari si o noua veste buna din La Palma via EURONEAR! Sincer nu credeam cand cineva de pe lista ne-a urat sa mai urmeze curand si alte descoperiri! Well.. Lucian Hudin did it again! :-) Acum o saptamana am descoperit un nou asteroid apropiat de Pamant (acronim NEA, din engleza) care a devenit al doilea NEA descoperit intamplator de EURONEAR cu telescopul INT 2.5m al ING de la observatorul din La Palma al ING si regasit in urmatoarele nopti cu telescopul 1.5m de la Observatorul din Sierra Nevada al Institutului de Astrofizica din Andalucia (IAA). Obiectul a fost identificat la mag ~21 in unul din cele 5 campuri observate in 9/10 pe INT si botezat initial de noi EUHT288 (dupa numele aceluiasi amator Lucian Hudin, acelasi neobosit reducator de imagini din Cluj si a studentului ING Vlad Tudor necontenit pre-reducator) devenind apoi oficial 2014NL52, gratie recuperarii in noaptea urmatoare dupa un apel disperat al meu catre mai multi colaboratori din toata lumea cu acces la telescoape 1-2m si chiar mai mici, altfel ar fi fost probabil pierdut! Aceasta descoperire vine la doar o luna de la prima (asteroidul 2014LU14 despre care v-am anuntat), fiind chiar mai deosebita prin faptul ca in noaptea descoperirii din 9/10 iulie actualul obiect 2014NL52 se misca mult mai repede (cu cca 6"/min, din care cauza a lasat pe cele 6 imagini niste dare mai lungi) din cauza ca se afla mult mai aproape de Pamant (la cca 0.05AU), ceea ce a impus recuperarea lui extrem de rapida si apelul meu care din fericire a primit raspuns prompt de la colaboratorul EURONEAR din Granada Rene Duffard. Din cauza distantei, el a fost foarte aproape sa fie clasificat ca un PHA (potential periculos) conform cu distanta minima a orbitei pana la cea a Pamantului (MOID=0.0075AU) insa ramanand se pare destul de mic (cca 50m sau H~24 comparativ cu limita H=22. Cei doi observatori spanioli au fost Olga Zamora (INT) si Alfredo Sota (Sierra Nevada). Pentru alte detalii includ anuntul de presa mai jos (in engleza pe care o stim mai toti). Atasat aveti si animatia din noaptea descoperirii si orbita lui 2014NL52 in comparatie cu cea a Pamantului si altor planete, cu pozitia foarte apropiata din noaptea descoperirii si zilele acestea. Inchei nu inainte de a va invita si pe alti seriosi amatori sa se alature acestui program international EURONEAR cu participare majoritar romaneasca (pentru care am primit recent continuare in semestrul urmator pentru recovery de NEAs la a doua opozitie folosind telescopul INT, si descoperiri de asteroizi main belt si altii apropiati de Pamant). Aceasta colaborare necesita in primul rand seriozitate, apoi un computer Windows cu internet, apoi doar circa doua ore disponibile pentru analiza fiecarui camp INT dupa fiecare run (care se intampla odata la cateva saptamani)! Afara de bucuria de a fi descoperit asteroizi, cei mai interesati si mai buni puteti ajunge pe viitor chiar sa observati in cadrul EURONEAR in La Palma sau alte observatoare din Spania (Tenerife sau din peninsula). Ii rog pe cei interesati pentru reducerea imaginilor INT ii rog sa ma contacteze direct! Ovidiu -------------------------------------- EURONEAR Press Release Discovery of the second EURONEAR NEA using the INT and the Sierra Nevada 1.5m telescope, 2014 NL52 La Palma, 16 July 2014 Contact: Ovidiu Vaduvescu (email: euronear@imcce.fr) http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&object_id=2014+NL52 Thanks to the IAC Spanish observing time which awarded to the PI Ovidiu Vaduvescu 30 hours available to trigger during the 2014A semester for the program C136 "Recovering NEAs and Eliminating VIs: A Pilot ToO Program with the INT-WFC", the second Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) was recently discovered from La Palma by the European Near Earth Asteroids Research (EURONEAR) program! Part of the C136 program, one hour was accessed during the CAT service night 9/10 July 2014 to target four NEA fields to be recovered at second opposition, which was observed the by the Spanish IAC researcher Olga Zamora and reduced first by the ING student Vlad Tudor. One of these fields, namely the known Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) 2010 SH13, targeted to be recovered after four years, was carefully analised by the Romanian amateur astronomer Lucian Hudin from Cluj-Napoca, who serendipitously found a trailing unknown object moving very fast at about 6"/min, most probably a NEA or PHA. Around magnitude 21, the object was baptised EUHT288 and was rapidly reported to the MPC, then posted on the long NEOCP list of new NEA candidates, in the hope to be recovered by other observers soon... Due to the INT schedule, right after the discovery night, the WFC camera was dismounted from the INT and changed to another instrument, thus our C136 program lost its main WFC capability to recover this object during next nights. The fast motion of the object endangered later recovery, due to its very rapidly growing uncertainty in ephemeris (estimated around 1000" during second night)! A pledge for urgent recovery observations during the next night was issued among other EURONEAR nodes and other possible observers worldwide, in the desperate aim not to lose the new object! Fortunately, the EURONEAR node at Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) from Granada, Spain replied very promptly, and the observer Alfredo Sota used the 1.5m telescope with its small field camera in Sierra Nevada Observatory to take about 30 images around the predicted position of EUHT288. Fortunately, in only three of them, the same reducer Lucian Hudin could recover few hours later the same trailing object about 9' away from prediction, which precluded loss of the object! During next two nights, the same 1.5m telescope could follow-up with other small data-sets our NEA candidate EUHT288, which soon became the official 2014 NL52 and the second NEA discovered by EURONEAR from La Palma and using the INT telescope, with the crucial follow-up help of the Spanish IAA Sierra Nevada Observatory. Discovered quite close to the Earth around 0.05 AU (7.5 million kilometers), the estimated MOID of 2014 NL52 is 0.0075 AU (around 1 million km, bellow the limit of 0.05 AU which define PHAs), nevertheless its estimated absolute magnitude H=23.9 does not seem to classify it as a PHA (being fainter than the 22 mag definition). Based on its short arc preliminary data, the object is a small Apollo NEA (size around 50m) with an orbit quite close to Earth (a=1.2 AU), moderate eccentricity (e=0.2) and moderate inclination (i=8 deg). The discovery animated images are shown in Figure 1 (thanks to Lucian Hudin) and its orbit is plotted in Figure 2 (courtesy of NASA/JPL NEO website). Press release and pictures included also on the EURONEAR website (folder File Galeries / NEA Discoveries): http://euronear.imcce.fr/tiki-list_file_gallery.php?galleryId=4 FIG 1 - animatia imaginilor din noaptea descoperirii aici: http://euronear.imcce.fr/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=503 FIG 2 - orbita lui 2014 NL52 si cea a planetelor si Pamantului (atasata sau aici): http://euronear.imcce.fr/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=502