THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
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43.6667° N                   70.2667° W
Altitude:  10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian Date: 245907.16
2019-2020:  CVI
              "I'm no rocket surgeon."
                     -seen on a bumper sticker.

THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Thursday, Feb 27, 2020
Mini-Moon!

First, the great news!
Earth has a brand new moon, not to be confused with the "New moon," defined
as the moon-Sun alignment that places the moon between the Sun and Earth.

Second, the less-than-great news
One will not be able to observe this brand new moon in the sky, much to the
chagrin of the incurable romantics who can never get sufficient
quantities of moon light.   This new moon is a "mini moon," a teeny little
asteroid measuring 6 feet by 11 feet: something that could pack a punch to
a person who came to cross purposes with it, but poses no threat to the
planet.    Dubbed 2020 CD3*, this tumbling rock likely ventured too close
to Earth about three years ago and became temporarily ensnared by its
gravity.    Like asteroid 2006 RH120, the only other captured mini-moon yet
identified, it will likely loiter about the world for a spell before
careening back into interplanetary space.   Earth captured 2006 RH120 in
June 2006 and it escaped in September 2007.   How long we'll retain this
new mini moon is anybody's over educated guess.

Because this mini moon is so absurdly small it is well below the threshold
of naked eye visibility.  At a magnitude of 20 it is nearly 400,000 times
dimmer than the faintest star visible without a telescope. Nothing that
could silver coat a half decent forest.

2002 CD3 isn't the first of Earth's mini-moons and certainly won't be the
last.  The planet has probably been the temporary host to millions of mini
moons through its long life.      Astronomers are naturally delighted at
the discovery of this latest interloper.  It pleases us all to know that a
few of the myriad asteroids swarming around the solar system occasionally
takes a spin around Earth: a reminder that our neighborhood is abuzz with
activity. As though we could ever forget that fact!

*The name seems terribly complex.  Happily, it isn't really.   Those
numbers/letters are assigned to an asteroid based on the time of its
discovery.     The first number is the discovery year, in this case 2020.
The first letter refers to the half month of its discovery.  The year is
divided into half months:  Jan 1 - 15 is A; Jan 16 - 31 B; Feb 1 - 15 C;
Feb 16 - 29 D; et cetera.  (I and Z are omitted).     The second letter
indicates the order of discovery, so the first body discovered in that half
month would be assigned A, the second B, the third C.  However, as so many
bodies are discovered each half month, the third number indicates the
number of cycles for the second letter. For instance, 2020 CA  would be the
first body discovered in the half month beginning Feb 1st.    2020 CA1
would be the 26th body discovered in that same half month. (The letter I is
omitted as it closely resembles the number 1.)   2020 CD3 was discovered on
Feb 15, 2020 and was the 79th object discovered in that half month.


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