[South Florida DX Association] Re: Earth - Asteroid - Earth Bounce ???

[Scott / W4PJ]

The earth-crossing asteroid, 4179 Toutatis, will make its closest approach
to earth in the year 2004, according to two NASA-sponsored scientists, Dr.
Steven Ostro of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Dr. Scott Hutton.

CLOSE APPROACH PREDICTED FOR 2004

On September 29, 2004, the asteroid Toutatis will pass four lunar distances
from the Earth -- which is four times the distance between the Earth and the
Moon. This will be the closest known approach of any comet or asteroid
between now and the year 2060. Because of its strange rotation pattern, its
trajectory cannot be accurately predicted more than a few centuries in
advance. And among asteroids whose orbits cross that of earth, Toutatis's
orbit is thought to be among the most chaotic.

Hutton and Ostro, whose research is published in the October, 1995, edition
of "Science," said that Toutatis is one of the strangest objects in the
solar system. It has an irregular shape and a complex tumbling rotation. The
article states that the vast majority of asteroids and all planets spin
about a single axis like a football thrown in a perfect spiral. However
Toutatis tumbles like "a flubbed pass." As a result of this strange
rotation, Toutatis does not have a fixed North pole like the Earth. Its
North pole wanders along a curve on the asteroid about every 5.4 days.
Toutatis doesn't even have anything that could be defined as a "day," Hutton
says. Its rotation is determined by two kinds of motion with periods of 5.4
and 7.3 Earth days, so the asteroid's orientation with respect to the solar
system never repeats.

More Info:
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~hudson/Research/Asteroids/4179/
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/CloseApp.html
Object (and name)             Date of encounter (TT)     Distance
Orbit arc                     Reference
(4179) Toutatis   2453278.07  2004 Sept.29.57        0.01036       8
oppositions,        1988-2000   MPO  6175

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/toutatis.htm

http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/4179_Toutatis/toutatis.html

http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/4179_Toutatis/toutatis_orbit.gif

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/neo_ca