Travelers In The Night

My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was asteroid hunting with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he came across an unknown moving point of light in the night sky. After Greg reported his observations to the Minor Planet Center his discovery was tracked by telescopes in California, Romania, Germany, New Mexico, Arizona, Bavaria, and Japan. Astronomers used these data to calculate that Greg’s discovery orbits the sun between Venus and Earth , estimate its size to be approximately twice the length of a football field, and give it the name 2026 BX4. NASA classifies it to be a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, however, since it doesn’t cross the Earth’s orbit it is not an immediate impact threat. In fact it will not come as close to us as it can on its current path until February 17, 2075 when it will pass less than 6 times the moon’s distance from us. Because 2026 BX4’s orbit is entirely within the Earth’s path about the Sun it is classified to be an Atira asteroid. These space rocks are dif