A curious asteroid.

[Xilman]

 

I posted this to a BAA forum earlier today.  It may be of interest to some people here capable of imaging below mag 19.5 --- whether directly or with a robotic observatory. More information is available from the MPC.

 

The newly announced km sized Asteroid 2021 PH27 has a = 0.46148 +/- 0.00043 e = 0.7094 +/- 0.0023 and a 114.5 day orbital period. Is this the shortest period on record? It's a Mercury and Venus crosser, but doesn't make it out beyond 0.8 AU.

The current evening apparition is no longer accessible for folks with plausible telescopes but next March it may be possible for some of us. On 2022-03-01 it is predicted to be at an altitude of 18 degrees when the sun is 15 degrees below the horizon at 06:30 UTC here in La Palma. It won't be easy to pick up a V=19.4 object in nautical twilight but neither is it obviously impossible.  At least the moon is out of the way around then.

One for your diaries?

Edited August 21, 2021 by Xilman
Fix tyops