Thread: russian meteor
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Old February 20th 13, 08:01 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
palsing[_2_]
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Default russian meteor

On Wednesday, February 20, 2013 3:11:38 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Feb 19, 10:39*am, Chris L Peterson wrote:

On Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:09:28 -0800 (PST), wrote:


A satellite of a closely approaching asteroid could be moving in any


direction relative to the Earth. *However, 2012 DA14 was several


hundred thousand kilometers away from the meteoroid, orders of


magnitude more than the typical distance of an asteroid moon.


Asteroid 2012 DA14 was very small, with a very low escape velocity.




A fragment of DA14 could be very far away from it (the existence of a


fragment is much more likely than of a satellite). But it would still


be in the same orbit as DA14, and therefore couldn't have produced the


Russian fireball.




The OP wasn't asking about a fragment with a similar/identical orbit,

but about a satellite which might have been in orbit around the

asteroid.


Same answer, whether is was a fragment or a satellite. It would still be in a similar orbit wrt the Sun & Earth, much as the moon has an orbit around the Sun that is similar to Earth's.