Asteroid discovered by UNT grad student

by John P. Meyer

Oblong, potato-shaped, space-based objects are more common than you might think. I mean, this guy found one in Regulus' belt.

David McNeil is a graduate student in the physics program at UNT, which implies that he already has something of a scientific bent.

Instead of frittering away his non-study time by participating in sporting events or hoisting one can of fermented beverage after another (what a LOSER!), he concentrates on pictures taken by telescopes connected with the International Asteroid Search Campaign, an internet-based initiative employing eager (and free) student laborers in a quest to find as-yet-uncharted space rocks.

On April 12 of this year, David struck visual pay dirt after comparing three sequential images taken by a telescope in far-off Illinois. He noticed (as all good discoverers of asteroids do) that a particular object in the images appeared in different positions against the starry background in each frame, indicating (relatively) rapid angular movement. After a quick check with the Minor Planet Center, it was confirmed that this oblong, potato-shaped, tumbling thing in the asteroid belt near the bright star Regulus was a thus-far unidentified object.

I would like to report that the asteroid (of as-yet unknown composition and size) has been christened something like "Regulus DJ McNeil," but in fact as a result of the boring nomenclature standards imposed on such things it will now and forevermore be referred to as "2007 KH-16K." What a let-down.

The story gets more interesting for UNT-based seekers of space-crud, because that institution's Monroe Robotic Observatory is being considered for inclusion in the elite cadre of telescopes employed in International Asteroid Search Campaign programs.

Wouldn't it be ironic if 2007 KH-16K ended up smashing at some future date into the North Texas prairie and wiping out civilization as we know it? (C'mon, don't tell me the same thought hasn't occurred to you.)