Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Close Approach of Asteroid 2014 DX110

The asteroid 2014 DX110 was discovered (at magnitude ~20) on 2014, February 28 by F51 Pan-STARRS 1 , Haleakala survey.

2014 DX110 has an estimated size of 19 m - 43 m (based on the object's absolute magnitude H=25.7) and it will have a close approach with Earth at about 0.9 LD (Lunar Distances = ~384,000 kilometers) or 0.0023 AU (1 AU = ~150 million kilometers) at 2100 UT on 2014, March 05. This asteroid will reach the peak magnitude ~14.8 on March 05, 2014.

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object on 2014, March 05.6, remotely from the Q62 iTelescope network (Siding Spring) through a 0.32-m f/9.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD + f/6.1 focal reducer.

Below you can see our image taken with the asteroid at magnitude ~15.2 and moving at ~145.84 "/min. At the moment of its close approach in the next few hours, 2014 DX110 will move at ~509"/min. Click on the image below to see a bigger version. North is up, East is to the left (the asteroid is trailed in the image due to its fast speed).


According to a preliminary light-curve published on MPML mailing list by B. Warner, this asteroid is a fast rotator with a period of 0.1204 h (7.2 min) and amplitude 0.36 mag.  Click on the image below to see a bigger version.


Credit: Brian Warner

by Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Martino Nicolini

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