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4015 Wilson–Harrington
4015 Wilson–Harrington is an active asteroid known both as comet 107P/Wilson–Harrington and as asteroid 4015 Wilson–Harrington. It passed from Earth on 20 July 2022 and then passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 24 August 2022. It seldom gets brighter than apparent magnitude 16. It will return to perihelion on 25 November 2026. Observational history This near-Earth object is considered both an Apollo asteroid with the designation ''4015 Wilson–Harrington'' and a periodic comet known as ''Comet Wilson–Harrington'' or ''107P/Wilson–Harrington''. It was initially discovered in 1949 as a comet and then lost to further observations. Thirty years later it was rediscovered as an asteroid, after which it took over a decade to determine that these observations were of the same object. Therefore, it has both a comet designation and an asteroid designation, and with a name length of 17 characters it is currently the asteroid with the longest name, having one m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert George Wilson
Albert George Wilson (July 28, 1918 – August 27, 2012) was an American astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets. He was born in Houston, Texas. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Caltech in 1947; his thesis title was ''Axially Symmetric Thermal Stresses in a Semi-Infinite Solid'' advised by Harry Bateman. In 1949, he accepted a job at Palomar Observatory, and led the Palomar Sky Survey. In 1953, he became assistant director of Lowell Observatory, and served as director from 1954 to 1957. He later worked at Rand Corporation and other private sector positions. In 1962, he became founding editor of the astronomical magazine ''Icarus''. In 1966, he accepted the position of associate director of McDonnell-Douglas Corporation Advanced Research Laboratories (DARL), which he held from 1966 until 1972. Wilson then became an adjunct professor at USC, teaching courses in philosophy and science until his retirement. After retiring Wilson was associated with the ''Institute on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Near-Earth Object
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit around the Sun, rather than its current position, thus an object with such an orbit is considered an NEO even at times when it is far from making a close approach of Earth. If an NEO's orbit crosses the Earth's orbit, and the object is larger than across, it is considered a potentially hazardous object (PHO). Most known PHOs and NEOs are asteroids, but about a third of a percent are comets. There are over 37,000 known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and over 120 known short-period near-Earth comets (NECs). A number of solar-orbiting meteoroids were large enough to be tracked in space before striking Earth. It is now widely accepted that collisions in the past have had a significant role in shaping the geological and biological history of Ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
176P/LINEAR
118401 LINEAR (provisional designation , comet designation 176P/LINEAR) is an active asteroid and main-belt comet(older 2010 site) that was discovered by the (LINEAR) 1-metre telescopes in on September 7, 1999. (118401) LINEAR was discovered to be on November 26, 2005, by [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
118401 LINEAR
118401 LINEAR ( provisional designation , comet designation 176P/LINEAR) is an active asteroid and main-belt comet(older 2010 site) that was discovered by the (LINEAR) 1-metre telescopes in on September 7, 1999. (118401) LINEAR was discovered to be cometary on November 26, 2005, by [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
60558 Echeclus
60558 Echeclus is a centaur, approximately in diameter , located in the outer Solar System. It was discovered by Spacewatch in 2000 and initially classified as a minor planet with provisional designation (also written 2000 EC98). Research in 2001 by Rousselot and Petit at the Besançon observatory in France indicated that it was not a comet, but in December 2005 a cometary coma was detected. In early 2006 the Committee on Small Bodies Nomenclature (CSBN) gave it the cometary designation 174P/Echeclus. It last came to perihelion in April 2015, and was expected to reach about apparent magnitude 16.7 near opposition in September 2015. Name Echeclus is a centaur in Greek mythology. 60558 Echeclus is only the second comet (after Chiron) that was named as a minor planet, rather than after the name of its discoverer. Chiron is also a centaur; other centaurs are being observed for signs of a cometary coma. Besides Echeclus, eight other objects are cross-listed as both comets an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
7968 Elst–Pizarro
Comet Elst–Pizarro is a body that displays characteristics of both asteroids and comets, and is the prototype of active asteroids. Its orbit keeps it within the asteroid belt, yet it displayed a dust tail like a comet while near perihelion in 1996, 2001, and 2007. * As a comet it is formally designated 133P/Elst–Pizarro. * As an asteroid it is designated 7968 Elst–Pizarro. Elst–Pizarro was reported in 1979 as minor planet , with its image on a photographic plate being completely stellar in appearance. Its orbit remains entirely within the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, with eccentricity 0.165, typical of a minor planet in the asteroid belt. However, the images taken by Eric W. Elst and Guido Pizarro in 1996, when it was near perihelion, clearly show a cometary tail. Since this is not normal behaviour for asteroids, it is suspected that Elst–Pizarro has a different, probably icy, composition. The cometary nature of Elst–Pizarro was first discovered when a linear dust fea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2060 Chiron
2060 Chiron is a ringed small Solar System body in the outer Solar System, orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. Discovered in 1977 by Charles Kowal, it was the first-identified member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs—bodies orbiting between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. 944 Hidalgo, discovered in 1920, also fits this definition, but was not identified as belonging to a distinct population. Chiron is named after the centaur Chiron in Greek mythology. Although it was initially called an asteroid and classified only as a minor planet with the designation "2060 Chiron", in 1989 it was found to exhibit behavior typical of a comet. Today it is classified as both a minor planet and a comet, and is accordingly also known by the cometary designation 95P/Chiron. More recently, a series of occultation events through the 2010s and early 2020s revealed that Chiron hosts rings, making it one of four minor planets and the only known comet to host a ring sys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid
A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and which is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They are conventionally defined as having a minimum orbit intersection distance with Earth of less than and an absolute magnitude of 22 or brighter, the latter of which roughly corresponds to a size larger than 140 meters. More than 99% of the known potentially hazardous objects are no impact threat over the next 100 years. , just 21 of the known potentially hazardous objects listed on the Sentry Risk Table could not be excluded as potential threats over the next hundred years. Over hundreds if not thousands of years though, the orbits of some "potentially hazardous" asteroids can evolve to live up to their namesake. Most of these objects are potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), and a few are comets. there are 2,304 known PHAs (about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor Planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor planet'', but that year's meeting IAU definition of planet, reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and Small Solar System body, small Solar System bodies (SSSBs).Press release, IAU 2006 General Assembly: Result of the IAU Resolution votes International Astronomical Union, August 24, 2006. Accessed May 5, 2008. In contrast to the eight official planets of the Solar System, all minor planets fail to clearing the neighborhood, clear their orbital neighborhood. Minor planets include asteroids (near- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteroid Belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets. The identified objects are of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, and, on average, are about one million kilometers (or six hundred thousand miles) apart. This asteroid belt is also called the main asteroid belt or main belt to distinguish it from other asteroid populations in the Solar System. The asteroid belt is the smallest and innermost circumstellar disc in the Solar System. Classes of Small Solar System body, small Solar System bodies in other regions are the near-Earth objects, the Centaur (minor planet), centaurs, the Kuiper belt objects, the scattered disc objects, the sednoids, and the Oort cloud objects. About 60% of the main belt mass is contained in the four largest asteroids: Ceres (dwarf planet), C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eccentricity (orbit)
In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values between 0 and 1 form an elliptic orbit, 1 is a parabolic escape orbit (or capture orbit), and greater than 1 is a hyperbola. The term derives its name from the parameters of conic sections, as every Kepler orbit is a conic section. It is normally used for the isolated two-body problem, but extensions exist for objects following a rosette orbit through the Galaxy. Definition In a two-body problem with inverse-square-law force, every orbit is a Kepler orbit. The eccentricity of this Kepler orbit is a non-negative number that defines its shape. The eccentricity may take the following values: * Circular orbit: * Elliptic orbit: * Parabolic trajectory: * Hyperbolic trajectory: The eccentricity is given by e = \sqrt where is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor F
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal dialect, Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It was the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introduced to England by Eleanor of Aquitaine, who came to marry Henry II of England, King Henry II. It was also borne by Eleanor of Provence, who became queen consort of England as the wife of Henry III of England, King Henry III, and Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I. The name was popular in the Anglosphere during the first half of the 20th century, but declined in use until the late 20th century and first decades of the 21st century. It has been a well-used name in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand during the 2020s. Eleanor was the third most popular name for newborn girls born to White Americans, white mothers in the U.S. state of Virginia in 2024, but was a less popular name for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
