The found near-Earth asteroid are different objects with peculiar orbits. With the new technique of CCD scanning we entered the domain of the smallest, the fastest, and the closest near-Earth asteroids. The results are presented

Gehrels, Tom

Mcmillan, Robert S.

Perry, M. L.

Rabinowitz, D. L.

Scotti, J. V.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

N92-12868
Discovery of Near-Earth Asteroids by CCD Scanning .......... T. Gehrels
T. Gehrels, R. S. McMillan, M. L. Perry, D. L. Rabinowitz, J. V. Scotti
After years of preparation and computer programming, fund raising for advanced CCD and
computer equipment, and waiting for the delivery of a 2048 x 2048 CCD, in order to make
finding near-Earth asteroids possible even with our old 91-cm Spacewatch Telescope... we
now discover them! The Table shows the results to date. They are all such different objects,
with peculiar orbits. With our new technique of CCD scanning we have entered the domain
of discovery that was not possible before, namely of the smallest, the fastest and the closest
near-Earth asteroids. 1991 BA has a diameter of 9 meters, moved 24°/d when it was
discovered, near magnitude-per-pixel of V = 23.0, and it came to about 170,000 km from
Earth when it passed closest, at 18 hours UT of i8 January 1991.
Spacewatch Discoveries, to date *
Identification Perihelion Aphelion Incli- Dia- Date of Remarks
distance distance nation meter Discovery
(AU) (AU) (deg) (kin)
1989 UP 0.98 2,7 3.9 0.3 27 Oct., 1989
1990 SS 0.89 2.5 19.4 0.9 25 Sep., 1990
1990 TGI 0.77 4.2 9.1 4.6 14 Oct., 1990
1990 UN 0.81 2.6 3.7 0.09 22 Oct., 1990
1990 UO 0.30 2.2 29.3 0.4 22 Oct., 1990
1990 UP 1.10 !.5 28.1 0.4 24 Oct., 1990
1990 VA 0.71 1.3 14.2 0.6 9 Nov., 1990
1991 AM 0.51 2.8 29.7 2.3 14 Jan., 1991
1991 BA 0.71 3.8 2.0 0.009 18 Jan., 1991
1991 BN 0.87 2.0 3.4 0.5 19 Jan., 1991
1991 CBI 0.64 2.7 15.8 1.3 15 Feb., 1991
elongated; perihelion
at Earth orbit
H=23.5
perihelion at Mercury
orbit
Amor; slow rotation
Aten; perihelion at
Venus orbit
crosses Venus orbit
smallest object found
so far
Discovered at 2.54
AU from Sun
1991 EE 0.85 3.7 9.8 1.5 13 Mar., 1991
1991 FA 1.08 3.0 3.2 1.5 17 Mar., 1991 Amor
1991 FE 1.08 3.5 8.6 5.8 18 Mar., 1991 Amor
*Auttmmtic operation began tn Septembcr 1990. We "rediscovered" 1990 UP (twice), (1865)
Cerberus, P/Kopff, P/Taylor, Pfltelin-Roman-Alu 2, and P/lhtrtley 1. We followed a few asteroids that turned
out to be in the main belt after all, while one was a geosynchronous object.
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Discovery of near-Earth asteroids by CCD scanning

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