Sunday, April 22, 2012

2012 EO4 Official Orbit


On April 22nd, 2012 MPC and JPL Small-body database published the official orbit of my asteroid. JPL has a very nice applet on their website, which allows tracking the asteroid back and forward in time.

Here is the position of 2012 EO4 on the discovery date:


MPC Ephemeris query shows that the object was first detected by 691: Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak-Spacewatch, Arizona, USA on 29 January 2012 - one month before me! But since they observed it for just one night the discovery credit will still be mine!

Interesting enough F51: Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala, Hawaii, USA also saw the object on March 20th!