Near-Earth asteroid discovered from Calar Alto Observatory

Asteroid 2009 DS₃₆ was discovered from Calar Alto Observatory (Spain) in the morning of February 25th 2009. Its fast motion on the sky suggested that it had to be located not too far away from Earth and indeed the preliminary orbit shows that this is a Near-Earth Object (NEO), the first object of this class discovered from Calar Alto. Its estimated diameter is around 15 meters.

2009 DS₃₆ was discovered passing in front of the constellation Leo, not far away from the direction towards the sigma Leonis star. The discoverer was astronomer Felix Hormuth, from the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy (Heidelberg) currently working at Calar Alto Observatory. In Hormuth's words, "It was pretty fast -- and left nice trails on a set of three long exposures originally obtained to confirm some of last night's mainbelt asteroid discoveries."

The telescope used for this study was the 1.23 m Zeiss telescope of Calar Alto. The discovery report, observations, and preliminary orbit can be found at the Minor Planet Center Electronic Circulars. Most asteroids follow orbits located between Mars and Jupiter. But a certain quantity of them run along paths that bring them close to Earth. These asteroids, and several comets with similar behaviour, are collectively known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). 2009 DS₃₆ was found almost exactly when it was at its closest approach to Earth, at 7 000 000 km (18 times the distance Earth-Moon). Its physical size is estimated around 15 metres.

The object will be followed from Calar Alto and from many other observatories around the world, in order to improve its orbital parameters.

Full resolution images:

Discovery image of asteroid 2009 DS₃₆ obtained by Felix Hormuth with the Zeiss 1.23 m telescope of Calar Alto Observatory the 25th of February 2009. (960 K)

One more image of asteroid 2009 DS₃₆ obtanied by Felix Hormuth with the same telescope, some minutes later. (970 K)

Orbit diagram showing the Sun and the orbit of the Earth (blue), and planets Mercury (green), Venus (yellow) and Mars (red). The orbit of asteroid 2009 DS₃₆ is depicted in purple. (Orbit diagram generated with Easysky.) (300 K)

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