2010 AL30: Space Junk or Asteroid?

NASA Confirms that 2010 AL30 is most likely a small asteroid measuring 10-15 meters (30-45 feet). As the update on NASA states there was some doubt as to whether the object was an asteroid.

Too bad it’s not going to impact Earth though… It would most likely produce a very nice meteorite strewnfield and would become the second asteroid in history to have been discovered and predicted to hit Earth. The first was Asteroid 2008 TC3 discovered by Richard Kowalski of the Catalina Sky Survey.

But alas we’re not so lucky as to have a visit by asteroid 2010 AL30 as it will flyby Earth at a distance of about 76,000 miles.

That’s really close in astronomical terms, considering the Moon’s distance from Earth is about 225,000 miles, this is not quite an Earth grazer but it’s pretty close. Hopefully we’ll see some cool astro photos come of this tomorrow with all the millions of amateur astronomers out there watching. Keep looking up!

RELATED INFORMATION:
Read our Article on “What is a Meteorite Strewnfield?” to learn about how asteroids impact Earth and the meteorites they produce.

UPDATE: 2010 AL30 Asteroid -  Small Asteroid 2010 AL30 Will Fly Past The Earth

Don Yeomans, Paul Chodas, Steve Chesley & Jon Giorgini
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
January 12, 2010

Trajectory of Asteroid 2010 AL30 Past Earth on January 12/13, 2010

Asteroid 2010 AL30, discovered by the LINEAR survey of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories on Jan. 10, will make a close approach to the Earth’s surface to within 76,000 miles on Wednesday January 13 at 12:46 pm Greenwich time (7:46 EST, 4:46 PST). Because its orbital period is nearly identical to the Earth’s one year period, some have suggested it may be a manmade rocket stage in orbit about the Sun. However, this object’s orbit, reaches the orbit of Venus at its closest point to the Sun and nearly out to the orbit of Mars at its furthest point, crossing the Earth’s orbit at a very steep angle, and this actually makes it very unlikely that 2010 AL30 is a rocket stage. Furthermore, our trajectory extrapolations show that this object cannot be associated with any recent launch and it has not made any close approaches to the Earth since well before the Space Age began.

It seems more likely that this is a near-Earth asteroid about 10-15 meters across, one of approximately 2 million such objects in near-Earth space. One would expect a near-Earth asteroid of this size to pass within the moon’s distance about once every week on average.

To take advantage of this close approach, there are plans to observe it with the Goldstone planetary radar on Wednesday evening, Jan. 12 beginning at 6:20 PST. The radar data could dramatically improve the object’s orbit and provide additional information on its size and shape.

SOURCE:  Small Asteroid 2010 AL30 Will Fly Past The Earth

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There’s been a curious new discovery of an interesting object orbiting the Sun. What most interesting is it’s an orbit very nearly matches Earth’s orbital time perfectly at 366 days. Could this be something unnatural like a spacecraft of some sort? It’s size is between 10-15 meters and it’s orbit around the sun suggests it’s something manmade, possibly left over debris from a dead satellite or rocket?

It is unconfirmed as of yet but it’s most likely an asteroid according to this site: MPML Yahoo Group (Minor Planet Mailing List)

“…Unlikely to be artificial, it’s orbit doesn’t resemble any useful
spacecraft trajectory, and its encounter velocity with the Earth is not
unusually low, around 9.5 km/sec “v_infinity”. Perfectly ordinary
Earth-crossing orbit….”

Meteorite List Quote:

“…I know of a large number of meteorite hunters and collectors that would be rushing towards the impact zone for an object this size and smaller.

I’m not sure how close I’d want to be to a 60 meter (’Sorry I meant 60 foot’) object’s impact point, but a few 10s of kilometers should be sufficient to get a great seat for the show and then be on the scene to recover fragments in very short order…”  SOURCE: {MPML} 2010 AL30: Bright (14th mag) newly-discovered close approaching object

Photo of object 2010 AL30

Read more about it on SpaceWeather.com: Curious Flyby
NASA: JPL Small Bmall Body Database Browser 2010 AL30

Additional Media Reports:

ABC News – Mystery Object to Whizz by Earth Wednesday

Digg – What is 2010 AL30? An asteroid or man-made object?

Discovery News – 2010 AL30: Asteroid or Space Junk? (Updated)

Universe Today – Asteroid or Space Junk? Object Makes Close Pass by Earth Wednesday

iTWire.com – What is flying past Earth? Don’t know but it’s called 2010 AL30

Accuweather – Close Approaching Object January 13th

Huffington Post – Mystery Space Object To Whizz By Earth: When & How To Watch

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