* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Asteroid 3200 Phaethon (1983 TB)

Blobrana · L

Title: An Upper Limit on Gas Production from 3200 Phaethon
Authors: Paul A. Wiegert, Martin Houde, Ruisheng Peng

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon resembles a comet in some ways, including a highly-eccentric orbit (e=0.89) and a strong associated meteor shower (the Geminids). Yet this object has never been observed to exhibit any cometary activity, i.e., gas production. We observed 3200 Phaethon with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on two occasions, once while it was near its closest approach to Earth as it neared perihelion, and another while it was further from Earth post-perihelion. Observations of the J=2-1 and J=3-2 rotational transitions of 12CO, typically strong lines in comets and indicative of gas production, yielded no detection. Upper limits on the 12CO production of 1.8e28 molecules/s and 7.6e28 molecules/s for Phaethon were determined on these two occasions.

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Provided

This radar image of asteroid 3200 Phaethon is the sum of two obtained at the Arecibo Observatory on Dec. 8.

Blobrana · L

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon 2007-12-11 7:01 UT
Magnitude: 15.1
Phase: 125 °
Distance: 0.1232 AU
Solar Distance: 0.9093 AU
Solar Elongation: 49°
J2000 RA: 13h52m46.46s DE:-09°07'21.9"

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Blobrana · L

3200 Phaethon is an Apollo and Mercury-, Venus-, Earth- and Mars-crosser asteroid with unusual properties, and may be an extinct comet.

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On December 10th the 3.3 km - 7.4 km wide asteroid will pass 47.0 Lunar distances from the earth moon system

 Date__(UT)__HR:MN     R.A._(J2000.0)_DEC  APmag  

 2007-Dec-10 00:00     13 07 57.89 -02 10 31.0  14.18   
 2007-Dec-11 00:00     13 42 41.72 -07 35 10.4   
 2007-Dec-12 00:00     14 16 38.92 -12 35 02.7   
 2007-Dec-13 00:00     14 48 29.24 -16 51 55.8   
 2007-Dec-14 00:00     15 17 19.93 -20 19 37.7   
 2007-Dec-15 00:00     15 42 48.98 -23 01 15.0   
 2007-Dec-16 00:00     16 04 58.43 -25 04 19.4   
 2007-Dec-17 00:00     16 24 04.53 -26 37 07.6   
 2007-Dec-18 00:00     16 40 29.54 -27 46 55.6   
 2007-Dec-19 00:00     16 54 36.65 -28 39 29.0   
 2007-Dec-20 00:00     17 06 47.32 -29 19 08.0   
 2007-Dec-21 00:00     17 17 20.26 -29 49 03.7  
 2007-Dec-22 00:00     17 26 31.31 -30 11 35.3   
 2007-Dec-23 00:00     17 34 33.62 -30 28 23.8   
 2007-Dec-24 00:00     17 41 38.08 -30 40 42.7  
 2007-Dec-25 00:00     17 47 53.69 -30 49 25.3   
 2007-Dec-26 00:00     17 53 27.89 -30 55 10.4   
 2007-Dec-27 00:00     17 58 26.91 -30 58 26.1 
 2007-Dec-28 00:00     18 02 56.00 -30 59 32.5   
 2007-Dec-29 00:00     18 06 59.64 -30 58 43.5   
 2007-Dec-30 00:00     18 10 41.74 -30 56 07.8   
 2007-Dec-31 00:00     18 14 05.75 -30 51 50.2

Blobrana · L

3200 Phaethon (1983 TB)