well I thought that was interesting at least!  Thanks
for the mini lesson!

xWaterLilyx
Team H20
Phoenix, AZ (Ahwatukee)


--- Jim Scotti <jscotti@jupiter.lpl.Arizona.EDU>
wrote:
>   I've been on just enough different programs that
> show up on the History
> Channel or Discover Channel that I can't keep track
> of which one it was....  
> Anyway, I'm at the telescope right now looking for
> more of the little
> beasties that might hit Earth someday, which might
> explain why I'm responding
> to your message at 1:21 in the morning on a
> weeknight....
>   There's actually a madness to our method in naming
> objects.  They are named
> in order of their receipt by the Minor Planet Center
> where we send all our
> observations and new discoveries.  One of the
> objects I'm "famous for"
> discovering is 1997 XF11 which was erroniously
> predicted to have a high
> chance of impact in 2028 a few months after I
> discovered it.  1997 is the
> year I found it in and I found it in early December
> of that year(on the 6th
> to be exact), in the "Xth" half month (skipping "I"
> and not getting to "Z" in
> the 24 half months of the year).  The first asteroid
> of 2003 was called 2003
> AA, the 2nd 2003 AB, and the 27th 2003 AA1.  So 1997
> XF11 was the 292nd
> asteroid designated from the first half of December
> 1997.  BTW, after an
> object is observed well enough that its orbit is
> really secure, the object
> will be numbered and at that point we can name the
> asteroid.  For example,
> 1997 XF11 was recently number (35396) but I haven't
> named it yet.  (3594) is
> named Scotti after me which one of my colleagues
> named for me about 15 years
> ago....
>   Well, you did sort of ask.... :-P
> 
> Jim.
> 


=====
xWaterLilyx & RTF
Team H20
Phoenix, AZ (Ahwatukee)

Geocaching Site:  http://www.geocities.com/xwaterlilyxrtf

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