[Az-Geocaching] Solar Flare

[Jim Scotti]

You must have seen 1989 UP.  I think it's the only NEA that I discovered (or
had a hand in discovering) that actually has my name on the discovery credit.  
The rest are credited to Spacewatch (though I've probably found nearly 1/3 of
all the Spacewatch NEA discoveries over the years).  My most famous discovery
was 1997 XF11 (that was an object which for about 1 day back in March 1998
made the news when someone suggested a high impact probability for the object
in October 2028 that evaporated after further analysis and when some
prediscovery images from 8 years earlier were identified so that the orbit
was improved) and my discovery of 1994 XM1 put me in the Guinness Book of
World Records since it was, until last month, the closest observed approach
of an asteroid outside the atmosphere at a distanceof only 105,000 kilometers
(just over 1/4 the distance to the Moon).  You should have seen the look on
my niece's face when she disbelievingly found my name in the Guinness book of
all places.  :-)

Jim.

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003, Trisha wrote:

> Hi Jim, again,.,..
> You are right, that space weather site is pretty cool, I did manage to
> find you (Spacewatch) in the NEA section, I even found one with your
> name on it from 1989. Not that I have any idea what I am looking at,
> but it is interesting!
> Trisha
> 
> 

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/