Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Close Approach of Asteroid 2013 XY8

M.P.E.C. 2013-X44, issued on 2013, December 08, reports the discovery of the asteroid 2013 XY8 (discovery magnitude 17.7) by Catalina Sky Survey (MPC code 703 ) on images taken on December 07.1 with a 0.68-m Schmidt + CCD.

2013 XY8 has an estimated size of 31 m - 68 m (based on the object's absolute magnitude H=24.7) and it will have a close approach with Earth at about 2 LD (Lunar Distances = ~384,000 kilometers) or 0.0051 AU (1 AU = ~150 million kilometers) at 1117 UT on 2013, December 11. This asteroid will reach the peak magnitude ~14.4 between December 10 & 11.

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object on 2013, December 10.6, remotely from the Faulkes Telescope South (MPC code E10), through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD (Faulkes Telescope is operated by Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network).

Below you can see our image taken with the asteroid at magnitude ~15 and moving at ~78.0 "/min. At the moment of the close approach 2013 XY8 will move at ~151"/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).


Below you can see a short animation showing the movement of 2013 XY8 (four consecutive 30-second exposure). Click on the thumbnail for a bigger version:
 

by Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Martino Nicolini

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any idea what the coordinates in the sky will be for its location?

Team said...

@MikeynJazz you can generate RA & DEC coordinates for this asteroid using the Minor Planet & Comet Ephemeris Service:

http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html

Insert the date, the mpc code for the location and the asteroid designation 2013 XY8 to generate the ephemeris.

Ciao,
Ernesto

Pablo said...

Muy buena imagen

Pablo said...

Muy buena imagen