Two days ago 10 NEAs were announced, yesterday saw only a single announcement. The reason… most asteroid surveys are located in the southwest US (Arizona and New Mexico) so a bout of clouds over this part of the country will put a major dent in the number of discoveries. Hopefully the discoveries will ramp back up again tonight.
Yesterday’s sole announcement was larger than most recent discoveries. Nowadays most of the larger NEAs have been found. 2010 RO82 is probably somewhere between 3/4 of a km and 2.5 km across. Chances are an object this big and bright has been seen before though it may not have been recognized as an NEA. Though it is an NEA it really doesn’t come very close to Earth (MOID of 0.163 AU).
Asteroid Type MOID a e i H Mag Discoverer MPEC 2010 RO82 Amor 0.163 2.47 0.60 18.0 16.9 19 Siding Spring 2010-R107 Comet Type MOID q a e i Mag Discoverer MPEC None Type Aten - Earth crossing with semi-major axis (avg distance from Sun) < 1 AU Apollo - Earth crossing with semi-major axis (avg distance from Sun) > 1 AU Amor - non-Earth crossing with perihelion distance < 1.3 AU JFC - Jupiter family comet HFC - Halley family comet LPC - Long-period comet MBC - Main belt comet MOID - Minimum Orbit Intercept Distance, minimum distance between asteroid and Earth's orbit a - semi-major axis, average distance from Sun in AU (1 AU = 93 million miles) e - eccentricity i - inclination H - absolute magnitude Mag - magnitude at discovery Discoverer - survey or person who discovered the object MPEC - Minor Planet Electronic Circular, the discovery announcement
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors 