MPEC 2007-V70 : EDITORIAL NOTICE
The following Minor Planet Electronic Circular may be linked-to from your own Web pages, but must not otherwise be redistributed electronically.
Read MPEC 2007-V69
Read MPEC 2007-V71
M.P.E.C. 2007-V70 Issued 2007 Nov. 9, 00:56 UT
The Minor Planet Electronic Circulars contain information on unusual
minor planets and routine data on comets. They are published
on behalf of Commission 20 of the International Astronomical Union by the
Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Supported in part by the Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network
MPC@CFA.HARVARD.EDU
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html ISSN 1523-6714
EDITORIAL NOTICE
A posting on the Minor Planet Mailing List by Denis Denisenko suggested
that the object designated 2007 VN84 on MPEC 2007-V69 might be the Rosetta
spacecraft. Our investigation of this possibility, using information from
the Satellite Situation Center (http://sscweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/), show that
this suggestion is indeed correct. The positional information available on
the SSC website does not begin until Nov. 12.0 UT. However, the agreement
at this time between the predicted positions for Rosetta and 2007 VN84 is
well within 1'. The minor planet 2007 VN84 does not exist and the designation
is to be retired.
This incident, along with previous NEOCP postings of the WMAP spacecraft,
highlights the deplorable state of availability of positional information on
distant artificial objects (whether in earth orbit or in solar orbit). The
Distant Artificial Satellites Observations (DASO) page on the MPC website
(http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/SpaceJunk/SpaceJunk.html) lists a number of
such objects, but has to be updated on a fairly regular basis from five
different sources and data is not always available for the timespans needed.
A single source for information on all distant artificial objects would be
very desirable.
A. U. Tomatic (C) Copyright 2007 MPC M.P.E.C. 2007-V70
Read MPEC 2007-V69
Read MPEC 2007-V71
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