ASTEROIDS

From the lists , these are the closest known asteroids per year that approach Earth
within one lunar distance LD and without impacting. More than one asteroid per
year may be listed if its geocentric distance[note 2] is less than 0.10 LD. The table
shows the year 2016 has three such close encounters. For comparison, since a
satellite in ageostationary orbit has an altitude of about 36,000 km, then its
geocentric distance is 0.11 LD.

Nominal
geocentric
distance[no
te 3]
(in
thousand k
m)

Nomina
l
geocen
tric
distanc
e
(in LD)

Size of
object
(approx.)

(H)

Date of
closest
approach

Object

2016-02-25

2016 DY30 14

0.04

25 meters

30.5[
3]

2016-01-12

2016
AH164

27

0.07

37 meters

29.6[
4]

2016-03-11

2016
EF195[5]

32

0.08

1631
meters

25.6[
6]

2015-09-22

2015 SK7

27

0.07

314
meters

28.9[
7]

2015-11-15

2015
VY105

35

0.09

49 meters

29.0[
8]

2014-06-03

2014 LY21

15

0.04

48 meters

29.1[
9]

2013-12-23

2013 YB

27

0.07

3 meters

31.4[
10]

2013-02-15

367943
Duende

34

0.09

30 meters

24.0[
11]

2012

2012-05-29

2012 KT42

21

0.05

9 meters

29.0[
12]

2011

2011-02-04

2011

12

0.03

1 meters

32.1[

Ye
ar

2016

2015

2014

2013

Ye
ar

Date of
closest
approach

Object

Nominal
geocentric
distance[no
te 3]
(in
thousand k
m)

Nomina
l
geocen
tric
distanc
e
(in LD)

Size of
object
(approx.)

CQ1[13]

2010

(H)

14]

2011-06-27

2011 MD

19

0.05

14 meters

2010-11-17

2010 WA

39

0.10

26 meters

28.0[
15]
30.0[
16]

COMETS
SOHO Comets
(Various perihelion
dates in 2016)

Comet Encke
(Mar 10, 2017)

Comet Wirtanen
(Dec 12, 2018)

Dozens of tiny comets, known as sungrazers or sunskirters,

will tightly orbit the Sun in 2016, but will probably only be
visible from space observatories like SOHO, LASCO and
STEREO (A and B). The general public can comb through
movies and images captured by SOHO, attempting to discover
the next comet. It's not as impossible as it sounds. A comet is
discovered every three days on average using images from
SOHO. The following links provide a complete List of Periodic
Comets with a perihelion in 2016 and Non Periodic Comets
with a perihelion in 2016.

Comet Encke (2P/Encke) orbits our Sun once every 3.3 years,
which is the quickest known orbit of any comet. Meteor
showers, known as the Taurids and Beta Taurids, are thought
to be the remains of the dust trail left by Comet Encke. There
are even theories that the Tunguska explosion in 1908 was
created by a small piece of Comet Encke.
According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, on December 16,
2018, Comet Wirtanen will pass 0.0777 AU (7,220,000 miles,
11,620,000 kilometers) from Earth. For reference the average
distance between the Moon and Earth is .0024 AU. Don
Yeomans and Paul Chodas, of JPL, have identified Comet
Wirtanen as one of the comets to pass closest to Earth

between 2000 and 2200 CE.

Comet 209P /
LINEAR
(June 12, 2019)

Comet Neujmin 2
(Aug 17, 2019)

Comet 289P /
Blanpain
(Dec 20, 2019)

Comet Holmes
(Feb 19, 2021)
Comet Brooks 2
(Apr 18, 2021)

Comet PonsWinnecke
(May 27, 2021)
Comet Finlay
(Jul 13, 2021)
Comet d'Arrest

Russian astronomer, Mikhail Maslov, believed Earth would

pass through the tail of Comet 209P / LINEAR between 7:00
and 8:00 UT on May 24, 2014. He also believed that it could
result in a meteor storm producing between 100 and 400
meteors an hour, and that viewing conditions would be
particular good in Canada and the United States.
Unfortunately, it disappointed.
On February 24, 1916, George van Biesbroeck (Yerkes
Observatory) spotted a comet with an apparent magnitude of
11. It was a Jupiter-Family comet with an orbit of 5.43 years.
This comet has not been observed since its apparition in
1927. Due to its disappearance, it's known as 25D / Nuejmin
2, meaning it's a "lost" comet.
On November 28, 1819 Jean-Jacques Blanpain discovered a
comet. It was designated C / 1819 W1. After this apparition
the comet was "lost" and remained unobserved for nearly 200
years. In 2005, a recently discovered asteroid matched the
orbital path and period of C/1819 W1. It also had a faint coma,
meaning it probably was an nearly-exhausted comet. The
object was officially renamed Comet 289P / Blanpain in July of
2013.
Over the course of 42 hours in October of 2007, Comet
Holmes (17P/Holmes) became a half million times brighter on
its way to becoming the largest object in the solar system larger than the Sun, or Brad Pitt's ego, if only for a brief time.
The fragmentation of Comet Brooks 2 is believed to have
been caused by a close pass to Jupiter in 1886, when it
passed .001 AU from Jupiter. The gravity of the planet tore the
comet into fragments. The fragmented comet was observed
for the first time, in recorded history, three years later on July
7, 1889.
According to the Minor Planet Center, on June 26, 1927 PonsWinnecke passed .0394 AU from Earth. Thats a little more
than fifteen times the average distance between Earth and
the Moon.
On October 27, 2060 Comet Finlay will pass 0.048 AU from
Earth (JPL, 2014). That's the equivalent of 4,500,000 miles or
7,200,000 kilometers. For reference, the average distance
between Earth and the Moon is 0.002 AU.
This comet was spotted and recorded by Heinrich Ludwig d'
Arrest in Leipzig, Germany on June 28, 1851. It was the sixth

(Sept 21, 2021)

comet to have its periodic orbit determined.

Comet Faye

Comet Faye (4P/Faye) was discovered in 1844 by a French

astronomer. It was the first periodic comet to be named after
its discoverer and not the individual who determined its orbit.

(Dec, 2021)

Comet Churyumov- In November 2014, the European Space Agency released a

Gerasimenko
lander, called Philae, from its Rosetta Spacecraft. The lander
attached to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov(Jan 21, 2022)
Gerasimenko. The ESA is studying the comet before, during,
and after its closet approach to the Sun on August 13, 2015.
It's orbital period is 6.44 years.
Halley's Comet
(July 28, 2061)

Comet Swift-Tuttle
(July 12, 2126)

Comet Lovejoy
(2633 CE)
Comet Ikeya-Seki
(2565 CE)
Comet Hale-Bopp
(4385 CE)

Comet Lemmon
(13000 CE)

Edmond Halley used Newtonian physics to predict that a

comet appearing in 1531, 1607 and 1682 would return in
1759. Halley died in 1742, so he didnt live to see the return
of his comet. When the comet did return on Christmas Eve in
1758, it became known as Halleys Comet (1P/Halley).
Halley's feat marked the first time in history that a comet
returned to the inner solar system as predicted.

When the Swift-Tuttle Comet (109P/Swift-Tuttle) was spotted in

1862, it had an apparent magnitude of 2 and a tail spanning
thirty degrees of the night sky. The nucleus of Swift-Tuttle is
17 miles (27 km) in diameter. It's nearly triple the diameter of
object that slammed into the Yucatan 65,000,000 years ago
and caused one of the largest extinction events in history.

In December of 2011, Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) stunned

scientists by traveling through the Sun's corona and survived
an estimated 2,200,000 F (1,200,000 C).
In 1965, Comet Ikeya-Seki (C/1965 S1) reached an apparent
magnitude of -10. It could easily be seen in the daytime sky
and was the brightest comet since 1882 CE.
After its discovery in 1995 by two amateurs, Comet Hale-Bopp
(C/1995 O1) became one of the most spectacular naked eye
comets in history. It remains the largest comet ever observed,
with a nucleus measuring 37 12 miles (6020 km) in
diameter.
The Mt. Lemmon Survey (MLSS) has discovered more
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) than any telescope on
Earth. MLSS has also discovered comets. On March 23, 2012
images from MLSS captured a 20.7 magnitude comet (C/2012

F6).
Comet LINEAR
(32000 CE)

Comet NEAT
(39000 CE)
Comet Hyakutake
(72000 CE)
Eclipse Comet
(86600 CE)
Comet McNaught
(94600 CE)

Comet LINEAR could refer to any one of the hundreds of

comets discovered by Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research
(LINEAR) at MIT. It is one of the few systems in the world,
which is automated. A telescope and computers collect,
analyze and sort data non-stop. Since its inception, LINEAR
has detected 2,423 near earth objects including 279 comets.
The comet pictured broke into 200 pieces in the summer of
2000.

The comet pictured to the left (C/2002 V1) orbits the Sun once
every 37,000 years at 81 compared to the ecliptic. It was
discovered in 2002 by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT)
program.
On March 25th, 1996, Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) passed .
1 AU from Earth. Frighteningly, this comet had been
discovered less than two months earlier by an amateur
Japanese astronomer armed only with a pair of binoculars.
During a solar eclipse in 1948 a comet with an apparent
magnitude of -2 was spotted near the Sun. The comet
became infamously known as the "Eclipse Comet". It was
formally designated C/1948 V1.
If someone were to say, "Comet McNaught", they could be
referring to any of the over fifty comets discovered by
astronomer and comet-hunter Robert McNaught. One
discovery, C/2006 P1, became one of the most beautiful
naked eye comets in recorded history.

Comet
PANSTARRS(108,
000 CE)

Comet PANSTARRS could refer to any one of the hundreds of

comets discovered by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and
Rapid Response System atop Haleakala in Maui. One of its
discoveries (C/2011 L4) was a naked-eye comet visible in both
the southern and northern hemisphere after its perihelion on
March 10, 2013.

Comet West

In 1976, Comet West (C/1975 V1) reached an apparent

magnitude of 3 during its closest approach to the Sun. It was
brighter than Venus in the morning sky.

(Unknown)
Comet ISON
(Unknown)

On September 24, 2012 it was announced that we had a 2

mile (3 km) wide visitor in our solar system between Jupiter
and Saturn in the constellation of Cancer. Comet ISON
(C/2012 S1) had the potential to be as bright as a full moon in
early December of 2013...if it could survive perihelion on
November 28, 2013. Unfortunately it did not. The vast

majority of the comet's nucleus evaporated in the Sun's

corona.

Comet Siding
Spring
(Unknown)

Comet Biela
(Lost 1852)

Comet Brorsen
(Lost 1879)

Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) passed 0.000276 AU

(41,300 km, 25,700 miles) from the surface of Mars on
October 19, 2014. For comparison, the average distance
between the Earth and Moon is .00257 AU (384,400 km,
238,900 miles). It reached perihelion on October 25, 2014 and
began its long journey back to the Oort Cloud.
In 1852, Comet Biela's (3P/Biela) nucleus was observed
fragmenting into two pieces. It has not been seen since and is
widely considered "lost" or destroyed. Ironically, its discoverer
may have outlived the comet he discovered. In the 19th
century, Biela was the suspected parent of several meteorite
impacts. There were even suggestions that it caused the
Great Chicago Fire.
Theodor Brorsen made worldwide news with this discovery in
1846. In the land before television and the internet,
newspapers carried the story around the world. The fifth
comet to ever have its periodic orbit determined became
known as Comet Brorsen (5P/Brorsen).

Comet Shoemaker- Unlike most comets, which orbit around the Sun, ShoemakerLevy 9
Levy 9 (D/1993 F2) was orbiting around Jupiter when it was
first spotted in 1993. Astrophysicists ran some calculations
(Died Jul 1994)
and believed that the fragments, all twenty-one of them,
would slam into Jupiter in July of 1994. They werent
disappointed.
Comet SWAN
(Died Mar 2012)

Comet Lovejoy may have survived a death-defying close call

with the Sun in early 2012, but, months later, NASA observed
the death of Comet SWAN as it plunged into the Sun and
ended its multi-billion year existence.