messenger-no13

THE

MESSENGER

No.

13-June

1978

Thisissue

of

the

Messenger

focusseson

therecentdiscovery

of

twoEarth-approachingminor

planets.

Both

were

found

withthe

ESO

Schmidt

telescope

onLaSillabyDr.Hans-Emil

Schuster.

Working

inclose

collaboration

with

Dr.B.Marsden

of

the

Smithsonian

Observatory

in

the

USA,

it

was

possible

to

establish

the

orbits

before

the

closest

approaches

in

March

1978.This

enabled

other

observers

to

studythetiny

planetsand

to

learn

more

abouttheir

physicalproperties.

Although

moving

invery

different

orbits,

1978CAand

DA

came

within

3.8

million

kilometres

of

each

other

onFebruary17,1978.

1978

Feb9

14

T

1

Tl

T

11

1

rBi

T

TI

~

III

11

I

~ ~

~

I

1111

III

~ 1 4

I

11

I

~ · 9

1

11

g

cb

J,

eb

•

J,

•

Jan20

10

DA

10

Thef1y-by

of

1978CA

and

1978

DAearly

1978.

The

orbits

of

theEarth

and

the

two

minor

planets

are

shownduring

aperiodof

aboutfour

months,

centered

on

thedates

of

closestapproaches

inMarch.The

planets

are

marked

at

five-day

intervals.Those

parts

of

the

orbits

which

are

above

the

Ecliptic

(plane

of

theEarth's

orbit)are

fully

drawn.In

order

to

better

visualizethe

three-dimensional

positions,

verti

callines

connecting

the

minor

planets

tothe

Ecliptic

havebeentraced.

1978CA

was

discovered

on

February

8

and

came

within

19

millionkilometres

on

March

8;1978

DAwas

discovered

onFebruary

17

and

was

only

13

millionkilometres

from

theEarth

on

March

15.

Notealsotheveryclose

encounter

betweenthe

twoplanets

on

February

17.

TheCloseEncounterwith1978CAand1978DA

Itwasa

finenight

onLaSilla.

Astronomers

were

working

with

all

of

theESOtelescopes,

scrutinizing

thesouthern

skies

with

spectrographs

and

photometers

andthe

big

Schmidt

wasbusy,

taking

deepphotographs.

Itwasthe

night

between

February

7and

8.

After

mid

night,

ESO

astronomer

Hans-EmilSchuster

put

a

red-sen

sitiveplatein

the

Schmidt

telescope

andsettled

downto

guideduring

the

90-minute

exposure

time.

The

fieldwasin

thesouthernpart

of

theconstellation

of

Hydra

(TheWaterSerpent)and

it

contained

a

prominent

cluster

of

galaxies.

Later

in

themorning,

theplatewasdevelopedandHans

Schuster

hada

quick

check

of

theimage

quality,

beforethe

platewastobe

sent

on

to

the

"visiting"

astronomerwho

hadasked

for

it.

Down

inthe

lowerright

corner,

nearthe6

m

star

HR

4130,he

noticed

a

comparatively

faint

trail

of

a

minor

planet.Dur

ing

the

1'/2-hourexposure,the

smallplanethadmoved

about

1.8

millimetretowards

thenorth.

Trails

of

thislength

are

notinfrequent

on

long-exposure

plates,

buttwo

facts

caught

the

attentionof

theESO

astronomer;thedistance

from

the

Ecliptic

(about

30")andthe

directionof

motion,

almost

duenorth.This

normally

means

that

either

the

planet

is

moving

ina

rather

eccentricorbit

or

itisrelativelyclose

to

theEarth

or

both.

Itwas

obviously

an

object

that

was

worthto

be

fol

lowed

up.

During

the

some

short-exposure

plateswere

obtained,

approximatepositionsof

the

planet

weremeasuredand

telexed

to

Dr.

Brian

Marsden

at

theCentral

Bureau

ofAstronomical

Telegrams

in

Cambridge,

near

Boston,

Massachusetts.Dr.Marsden

calculated

a

prelimi

nary

orbit

and

couldimmediately

confirm

the

suspicionthat

thenew

minor

planet

was

rather

ciose

to

the

Earth.Im

provedorbitaldata

later

showed

the

distanceto

havebeen42

million

kilometreson

February

8.

Theasteroidwasgiven

the

name1978CAandwas

evidentlyrapidlyap

proaching

the

Earth.

Further

plateswere

obtained

during

thenewmoonperiodand

the

planet

was

followed

towards

north

while

its

daily

motion

was

rapidlyincreasing.

OnFebruary17,due

to

a

minor

mistake,theplatewas

off-set

abouttwo

degrees

tothe

east,so

that

1978CAwas

rather

ciose

tothe

western

edge.

Going

overtheplate,Hans

Schusternoticed

another

very

long

trail,

only

2

mmfrom

the

eastern

edge!Therewas

little

doubt

thatthis

wasyet

another

Earth-approaching

planet,

running

dueeast.

More

platesweretakenandaweeklaterDr.Marsden

could

confirm

that

1978DA(as

thesecondplanet

wascalled)

would

also

comerather

close

tothe

Earth.Allavailableplateswere

sentfrom

LaSilla

to

ESO/Genevaandweremeasured

accurately

on

the

ESOS-3000

two-coordinate

measuring

machine.

Thanks

to

the

z

I

3.

x

2.

.,

"

I

~ ~

"

,,

,

.;

:

: , ~ '

::::

::

C'.

::::

::

C!)

A::

::

:

I

(!tt.1!l

..

.::

!

<iii!

i

[i

1

"."II

'e

:I

...

,+e

:i::';

A

~

!+:

"

,

'"

,

~

~ : : :

:

11,1

I

:::

:

ei"

I

(>'I'

..

'

,

..

'

"'e

~ ~

:

..

y

&

~

I

+

I

+-1.

I

++

I

+

+-2.

1

+

I

A

projection

of

the

orbits

of

1978CA

and

1978

DA,

as

seen

from

the

direclion

of

ecliptical

(Iongitude,latitude)

=

(15Cf',

+

2Cf').

Thevernal

equinox

isinthe

direction

of

theX-axis

and

theY-axisis

perpendicular

totheX-axisinthe

ecliptical

plane.

The

Z-axis

points

towardsthe

eclipticalnorth-pole.

The

planets

are

indicated

at

20-day

intervals.

The

motions

are

slowerat

theaphelia(A)than

at

the

perihelia

(P)-in

particular

for

1978

DA.

Only

theEarth

is

shownamong

the

major

planets

to

avoidovercrowding

thefigure,

which

was

drawn

by

a

Calcomp

plotter

at

tached

tothe

ESOIHP

systeminGeneva.

The

unitsare

Astronomical

Units(A.U.).

2

1978CA:Trailon

a

15-minexposure

withtheESO

Schmidt

tele

scopeonMarch

1,

1978.

accuracy

of

thismachine(of

the

order

of

onemicron),

the

new

Perth

cataloguethatfurnished

the

astrometric

stan

dard

starsandan

improved

computer

programme,

itis

now

possible

to

measure

about

15platesperday.The

positions

of

1978CAandDAweretelexed

to

Dr.Marsden,

who

com

puted

the

improvedorbits

thesameday.From

then

on,

otherastronomerstook

over.The

two

as

teroids

were

movingrapidly

and

positions

were

obtained

inAustralia,JapanandtheUSA.

Other

observersmeasuredthe

objectsphotoelectrically

and

radiometrically

near

their

closest

approaches

onMarch8and15,respectively.

More

details

about

these

important

observations

aregivenby

J.

and

A.

Surdej

and

J.

Degewijinthe

following

articles.

TheOrbits

1978CAisan

Earth-crossing

minor

planet

and

thereforebelongstothenoblefamily

of

"Apollos"

ofwhich

21

are

now

known.

It

follows

an

orbit

slightlylargerthanthat

of

1978DA:Trailon

a

15-min

exposure

withtheESO

Schmidt

tele

scopeonMarch

8,1978.

theEarth

with

aperiodof

435days.The

orbit

is

somewhatinclinedtotheEcliptic

(26")

and

close

encounterswith

theEarthmaytakeplacein

March

andSeptember.

Since

the

period

of

1978CAisclose

to

6/5of

oneyear,five

orbital

re

volutions

of

1978CAwilltakesixyearsand

we

may

there

fore

expectto

have

anotherfly-by

in1984.However,whereasthe

minimum

distance

in1978wasab

out

19

mil

lion

kilometres,

that

in1984willbe

around

28

million

kilo

metres,

accordingto

Dr.Marsden.1978DAfliesinan

orbit

quitedifferentfromthat

of

CA.

Since

itdoes

not

crossthe

Earth's

orbit

at1

A.U.-its

perihelis

at

1.024

A.U.-it

iscalledan

"Amor"

planet

(a

Mars-crosser).Ofthese13are

now

known.The

orbit

is

ratherelongated

(the

eccentricity

is0.588)andthe

period

is

1,433days,al

most

4years.

We

may

thereforeexpectto

see1978

DA

againin1982.Actually,

the

orbitof

1978

DA

isbelieved

tochange

rapidly,and

it

is

very

probablethat

itwasrecently

(or

will

soon

become)an

"Apollo"

planetlike

1978CA.

PhotometrieObservationsof1978CAand1978DA

Jean

and

Anna

Surdej

By

moderncustom,

assoonasa

new

minor

planethasbeendiscovered,

it

is

givena

provisional

numberincluding

the

year

of

its

discoveryfollowed

by

two

letters.

Thefirstletterindicates

the

numberof

the

fortnight

(A

=

1,

B

=

2,

...

),

countedsince

the

beginning

ofthe

year

during

which

the

firstobservation

wasmade.

Thesecond

letter(A

=

1st,B

=

2nd,

...

)isan

incremental

numberordering

allthe

observations

of

minor

planets

within

that

fortnight.Since

the

firstnew

asteroidwas

found

onFebruary

8,

it

was

desig

nated1978CA.

Thesecond

asteroid,discoveredonFebruary17,wasnamed1978DA.Untilnow,

the

origin

asweilasthephysicaland

chemicalproperties

of

"Apollo"

and

"Amor"

type

asteroids

are

poorlyknown.

Could,

for

instance,1978CAbetherest

of

aninactive

cometnucleus?Furthermore,

it

is

also

notknownwhether

"Apollo"

and

"Amor"

type

asteroids

re

semble

certainclasses

of

meteorites

and

whetherthey

maybeassociated

withthenumerous

minor

planets

circling

theSunbetweenthe

orbits

of

Marsand

Jupiter.

TheObservations

Twonights

attheESO1mtelescopewere

allottedto

us

on

March1and

2,

1978

for

UBV

photometric

observations

of

1978

CA

and1978DA.On

March

1,

when1978CA(seethe

photo

abovelett)was

crossing

theskyatsucha

high

speedrateas

3 ~ 5

per

3

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