SPACEWATCH® discovery of 2000 BF19

Discovery images of 2000 BF₁₉ on the night of January 28, 2000.

The asteroid appears in the center of the red square in each image, and can be seen moving among the background stars in the 3 images.  The picture quality is poor because the asteroid was imaged near the far north edge of the CCD detector.  The angular rates are -0.474 deg/day in longitude, and -0.070 deg/day in latitude.  (North is to the right, and east is at bottom.)

The asteroid 2000 BF₁₉ was discovered by SPACEWATCH® observer Jim Scotti on the night of January 28, 2000.  Observations made the next few nights generated an orbit that predicted a pass near the Earth again in the year 2011.  This pass could place the asteroid in a resonance orbit with the Earth, with the object returning every 11 years.  However, further observations refined the orbit, placing it no closer to us than 0.038 AU in the next 50 years. Thus, the asteroid has a zero percent chance of a collision with the Earth in the predictable future. Its size is estimated to be between 0.4 and 0.8 kilometers in diameter.  As of this writing, the object is 22nd magnitude, heading away from the Earth, and fading rapidly.

Recovery images of 2000 BF₁₉ taken the next night by observer Arianna Gleason.  The angular rates are -0.475 deg/day in longitude, -0.074 and deg/day in latitude.

Ephemerides for this object can be found at the NEODyS website.

Current elements for 2000 BF₁₉:
a=1.492 AU, e=0.392, i=6.57, H=19.5