Best times to observe asteroid Pallas (2 Pallas) between now (late 2008) and 2020

Tuesday, December 16, 2008



Just for fun I've been checking here to see when a number of asteroids will be closest to Earth (and thus the best times to observe them), and by coincidence the asteroid 2 Pallas is at its closest approach to Earth right now, the closest it'll be until 2014.

16 December 2008 ----- 1.562 AU
21 April 2010 ----- 1.947 AU
1 August 2011 ----- 2.549 AU
30 September 2012 ----- 1.961 AU
24 February 2014 ----- 1.232 AU
3 June 2015 ----- 2.393 AU
24 August 2016 ----- 2.401 AU
3 November 2017 ----- 1.7 AU
29 March 2019 ----- 1.582 AU


For more information on Pallas' close approaches to Earth, see this page and this one too.

Some general information from Wikipedia:

Epoch August 22, 2008 (JD 2454700.5)
Aphelion 510.468 Gm (3.412 AU)
Perihelion 319.005 Gm (2.132 AU)
Semi-major axis 414.737 Gm (2.772 AU)
Eccentricity 0.231
Orbital period 1686.044 d (4.62 a)
Average orbital speed 17.65 km/s
Mean anomaly 306.605°
Inclination 34.838°
Longitude of ascending node 173.134°
Argument of perihelion 310.274°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 582×556×500±9 km[1]
Mass (2.11±0.26)×1020 kg[2]
Mean density ~2.8 g/c
Equatorial surface gravity ~0.18 m/s²
Escape velocity ~0.32 km/s
Rotation period 0.325 55 d
(7.8132 h)[3]
Axial tilt likely 78 ± 13°[4]
Albedo 0.159 (geometric)[5]
Temperature ~164 K
max: ~265 K (-8 °C)
Spectral type B-type asteroid[6]
Apparent magnitude 6.4[7] to 10.6
Absolute magnitude (H) 4.13[5]
Angular diameter 0.59"[8] to 0.17"

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