2023 WA Whizzer

[bigmasterdrago]

Currently magnitude 38 due to extremely small phase angle, this little rock from space did a very close flyby on 17 Nov 03:40UT of just 24,296Km. I call these "whizzers". Unfortunately for us observers the initial reported observation by ATLAS Chile, Rio Hurtado on 2023-11-16 at mag 18, came too late.

It very quickly reach magnitude 11, very high in my sky the same day at 21:15 CST moving a degree and a half per minute!

Within the next hour, this small rock became totally unobservable as its phase angle dropped to single digits.

It takes a lot of work to get these recent discoveries into SkyTools and then get them plotted correctly. It's all about gravity.

[PMSchu]

Hi BMD,

Yes, I saw 2023 listed on the CNEOS website on 17 November, but the close approach had already occurred. It was a 'Rarity'=2 event despite the small size of the MP due to the close approach distance of 0.00018 AU. The Earth MOID=1.7476E-5 AU. That may imply a future collision. Fortunately CNEOS indicates that we're in the clear at least until 2176.

Phil S.