After eluding astronomers for 66
years, the long-lost asteroid Hermes has finally been retrieved.
Early on October 15th, Brian A.
Skiff (Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search, Arizona) sent measurements
of four CCD images obtained with the 23-inch Catalina Schmidt telescope to the
Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the center, Timothy B. Spahr identified the suspect with
other measurements submitted in the past seven weeks -- but not recognized as
unusual -- by LONEOS and by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR)
project in New Mexico. In addition,
quick action by James Young (Table Mountain Observatory, California) secured a
confirmation just before dawn on the 15th.
Judging by its brightness, Hermes is
a minor planet about 1 to 2 kilometers across. So it could be somewhat larger than the 1937 estimates.
In a famous exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, New York,
Hermes was depicted as a sphere about the size of Central Park.
Hermes is by no means the last of
the "lost asteroids" -- many thousands of others in the Minor Planet
Center's database fall in this category because they could not be followed long
enough for an accurate orbit to be determined. But Hermes is by far the most
famous. It was discovered by Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg, Germany, on October
28, 1937, and tracked for only five days.
Although never officially numbered,
it has been known by the name Hermes ever since.
In late October 2003, Hermes will be
bright enough (magnitude 13) to be seen in 8-inch and larger amateur telescopes
as it races westward across Cetus, Pisces, and Aquarius.
By month's end it will be moving 7 degrees per day and gaining.
Unlike the situation in 1937, when
Hermes skimmed to within 800,000 km of our planet (two Earth-Moon distances), it
will pass about nine times that far on November 4, 2003.
Nevertheless, the possibility of
future close encounters definitely puts this object in the PHA (potentially
hazardous asteroid) class.