[neo_followup] A10sHcN = really close, but missed

[Bill Gray]

Hello all,

    ATLAS got this object last night,  already on its way back
to interplanetary space,  with an orbit that showed it had
missed us by at most a couple of thousand kilometers.  With
follow-up from (Q70) Glenlee Observatory in Queensland,
Australia,  and a couple of detections dug out from (I41)
ZTF data,  we have q=6752 +/- 13 km :

https://www.projectpluto.com/xfer/a10shcn.htm

    At its closest,  at 17:19 UTC,  the object was about
373 km over French Polynesia.  The flyby changed its orbit
from one roughly between Earth and Mars (q=0.99 AU,
Q=1.64 AU) to one roughly between Earth and Venus
(q=0.723 AU,  Q=1.092 AU).  Hope its inhabitants like
warm weather.

    I briefly thought this might be a newly-launched
interplanetary artsat.  When they're launched,  they usually
have perigees just outside the earth's atmosphere,  and this
is a perfect match for that.  However,  this object would
have been launched retrograde (relative to the earth),  at
an inclination of about 128 degrees.  That would be a huge
waste of fuel and,  as far as I know,  has never actually
happened.

    It's currently down around mag 19,  and still on NEOCP.
I assume we'll see some more data come in for it over the
next day or so.

-- Bill