385E-421-New Aten

0:00Recently, my Catalyneus guy surveyed teammates Carson Fools and Greg Lunard discovered an A10 asteroid, which orbits the Sun once every 272 days on a path that crosses the orbits of Venus and Earth a number of times each year. A10's account for only about 6% of the Earth approaching asteroids that asteroid hunters discover. They are relatively dim and difficult to discover because they spend most of their time inside the Earth's orbit, with their sunlit side facing away from us. For example, Carson and Greg's newly discovered asteroid, 2017 WJ-16, is bright enough for asteroid hunters to track for only about 50 nights every couple of years. It is about 150 feet in diameter and travels on an orbit, which can bring it to a bit more than three times the Moon's distance from Earth. When 2017 WJ-16 is closer to the Sun than Earth, it travels faster than we do, allowing

1:06it to catch us and just barely cross our orbit as we both travel about the Sun. In 2020, 2017 WJ-16 will make one of its closer approaches to us when it comes to less than about five times the Moon's distance from our home planet. At that time, it will be traveling at 2.9 miles per second relative to us, which is well within the reach of our current rocket technology. I suspect that in the future, if the pattern of colors, which 2017 WJ-16 reflects, reveals a high metal or water content, humans will mine it to construct and operate their colonies in space. For Travellers in the Night, this is Dr. L. Grower. Go to Travellers in the Night.org Program 421 for more information.