* Astronomy

On July 3rd, 2006, there will be a spectacular flyby of the near-Earth Apollo asteroid 2004 XP14. Like the flyby of 2002 NY40 in 2002, 2004 XP14 will amaze visual observers with incredible speed visible in medium size telescopes.
Near close approach is around 4:44m UT July 3, this 600-meter/yard diameter asteroid Passes only 268,873 miles from the Earth, only 1.1 times the distance to the moon away. Peaking at visual magnitude 11.1 four hours later, users of telescopes of 6 inches (15cm) or larger can enjoy observing a rare celestial treat. At time of close approach, 2004 XP14 races along at 8.323 degrees per hour, or a mean lunar diameter every four minutes! Such a rapid speed results in direct motion becoming visible, second by second. Just as naked eye Earth satellites are seen crossing the sky, 2004 XP14 will both amaze and challenge the observer, both visually and those taking images.

3 Jul 2006  0   03h24m01.02s  N05 46' 43.9"   
3 Jul 2006  1   03h16m13.33s  N11 38' 13.5"   
3 Jul 2006  2   03h07m03.58s  N18 11' 54.9"   
3 Jul 2006  3   02h56m10.39s  N25 21' 35.6"   
3 Jul 2006  4   02h43m05.53s  N32 54' 15.7"  
3 Jul 2006  5   02h27m11.72s  N40 30' 45.5"  
3 Jul 2006  6   02h07m40.73s  N47 48' 51.9"   
3 Jul 2006  7   01h43m33.02s  N54 27' 39.7"  
3 Jul 2006  8   01h13m43.36s  N60 10' 50.6"   
3 Jul 2006  9   00h37m20.04s  N64 47' 51.8"   
3 Jul 2006 10   23h54m25.38s  N68 13' 44.1"   
3 Jul 2006 11   23h06m46.11s  N70 29' 08.0"  
3 Jul 2006 12   22h18m00.66s  N71 41' 03.1"

Image of 2004 XP14 by Michal Kusiak taken on 2006-07-03: exp: 80s, 60s, 80s, 800 ISO, lens: f=300mm f/5.6, Canon EOS Rebel, V~12.5 magnitude.

Initial observations of the Asteroid by amateurs in America have reported that the asteroid was over a magnitude fainter than the predicted 11th magnitude.

The orbital elements of 2004XP14 show that it will return on July 4 at less than 0.03511AU, and again in July 5th 2102 at 0.04152 AU, Last nights passing was the closest at only 0.00512 AU.

As yet it is too early to report on observations by the larger observatories that were following the asteroid.

Extensive observations are planned with the NASA 70-m radar at Goldstone, California, which is part of the NASA Deep Space communications network. It is anticipated that these radar studies will yield detailed images of the asteroid, as well as highly precise values for its orbit and spin state. Many NEAs have recently been found to have satellites, and the presence of a satellite will also be looked for with the radar.

This close pass by such a large asteroid has little historical precedent, but calculations show that a NEA this large comes this close about once per decade on the average. However, similar close passes in the past were not observed, since it is only in the past decade that the Spaceguard Survey has begun to inventory NEAs in this size range.

Source Ames Centre