132524 APL

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132524 APL
132524 APL New Horizons.jpg
Asteroid 132524 APL seen by New Horizons from 1.34 million kilometers in June 2006
Discovery [1]
Discovered byLINEAR
Discovery siteLincoln Lab ETS
Discovery date9 May 2002
Designations
MPC designation(132524) APL
Named after
Applied Physics Laboratory
2002 JF56
main-belt
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc9225 days (25.26 yr)
Earliest precovery date28 September 1990
Aphelion3.3152 AU (495.95 Gm)
Perihelion1.8897 AU (282.70 Gm)
2.6025 AU (389.33 Gm)
Eccentricity0.27388
4.20 yr (1533.5 d)
38.076°
0.23476°/day
Inclination4.1593°
51.694°
262.13°
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter
2.3 km[citation needed]
2.5 km[2]
S[3]
15.4[1]

132524 APL, provisional designation 2002 JF56, is a stony background asteroid in the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 2.3 kilometers across. It was imaged by the New Horizons space probe on its flyby in 2006 when it was passing though the asteroid belt. At its closest is was about 1/4 of a lunar distance away from the asteroid, which was able to be used for various tests. This flyby was incidental, and not all the instruments were online at this time, which were still being turned online during 2006.

Description[edit]

This has 2 images of 2002 JF56 taken by Ralph-MVIC channel. In the upper brighter image, the asteroid is viewed at a distance of 1.34 million kilometers (833,000 miles) where its about 6 times brighter than the lower, which is when it was about 3.36 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) away from the spacecraft

It was discovered on 9 May 2002 by astronomers of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) at the Lincoln Laboratory's ETS near Socorro, New Mexico, United States.[1] The asteroid orbits the Sun in a somewhat eccentric orbit at a distance of 1.9–3.3 AU once every 4.2 years. Its orbit is tilted off the ecliptic by 4 degrees.[1]

The New Horizons probe flew by it at a distance of approximately 102,000 kilometers on 13 June 2006. The spectra obtained by New Horizons show that APL is a stony S-type asteroid.[3]

New Horizons was not intended to fly by APL, and the flyby was just a coincidence. Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons, named the asteroid in reference to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which runs the mission.[4]

The asteroid was imaged with Ralph, but not the designed reconnaissance imager LORRI because it was not turned on yet.[5] LORRI was not activated until August 29, 2006 when its cover was opened and its first light image would be Messier 7.[6] It was in general possible to capitalize on the target of opportunity, and the asteroid was tracked for several days in June 2006 in addition to the other tests.[7] In March, New Horizons had passed the orbit of Mars, and the spacecraft was undergoing various course correction maneuvers and tests through out this time; as mentioned LORRI was not activated for another couple months.[8] New Horizons passed through asteroid belt during the summer of 2006, and the test helped prepare the team and spacecraft for the future flybys of Jupiter and Pluto in the coming years.[9] The asteroid belt is a feature of the solar system, consisting of a large number asteroids that orbit the sun primarily between 2.2 and 3.2 AU (Earth-Sun distance) which is between the orbits of planets Mars and Jupiter.[10]

Crossing the asteroid belt is possible, because although there is over a million asteroids larger than 1 km the distance between them is so large spacecraft pass through empty space.[11] This was established in the early 1970s when Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 traversed the belt for the first time.[12] There is some increased probability of encountering dust, but otherwise it takes special planning to actually pass very close to an asteroid as was done with Galileo spacecraft.[13] When it passed through the belt on its way to orbit Jupiter in the 1990s, it did a flyby of asteroid 243 Ida.[14]

Flyby animation[edit]

Animation of New Horizons's trajectory from 19 January 2006 to 30 December 2030
   New Horizons  ·   (486958) 2014 MU69 ·   Earth ·   132524 APL ·   Jupiter  ·   Pluto

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 132524 APL (2002 JF56)" (2015-08-22 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ a b CBET 547
  4. ^ Buckley, Michael (2007-03-05). "APL Rocks! Asteroid Named After JHU Applied Physics Lab". The JHU Gazette. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  5. ^ "New Horizons Mission to Pluto". Technology Org. 2015-07-18. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  6. ^ "http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=090106". pluto.jhuapl.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-30. External link in |title= (help)
  7. ^ "New Horizons Mission to Pluto". Technology Org. 2015-07-18. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  8. ^ "New Horizons Mission to Pluto". Technology Org. 2015-07-18. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  9. ^ [2]
  10. ^ "Asteroid Belt Facts - Interesting Facts about the Asteroid Belt". Space Facts. 2014-09-11. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  11. ^ "In science fiction movies, the "asteroid belt" is always pictured as a very crowded place. How dense is it really: impossible to navigate, risky or just interesting?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  12. ^ "In science fiction movies, the "asteroid belt" is always pictured as a very crowded place. How dense is it really: impossible to navigate, risky or just interesting?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  13. ^ "In science fiction movies, the "asteroid belt" is always pictured as a very crowded place. How dense is it really: impossible to navigate, risky or just interesting?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  14. ^ "In science fiction movies, the "asteroid belt" is always pictured as a very crowded place. How dense is it really: impossible to navigate, risky or just interesting?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2018-10-30.

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Olkin, Catherine B.; Reuter; Lunsford; Binzel; Stern (2006). "The New Horizons Distant Flyby of Asteroid 2002 JF56". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 38: 597. Bibcode:2006DPS....38.5922O.

External links[edit]