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acknowledged, I've decided to name it myself. How about "Wimpy"? Several years ago, the Russian government held an urgent meeting (attended by top officials and scientists) to discuss what they termed "The 2003 Problem". Few details are avail- able, but it apparently had something to do with a massive depopulation of the Earth. Since then, several "Earth defence" initiatives have been undertaken by various groups to improve the forecasting of close approaches by asteroids and comets. One of the most prominent of these groups is a subset of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, called the NEO (Near Earth Objects) Program. The NEO website is one of the best resources available for monitoring and identifying all our potentially hazardous neighbours. It even has a Java-based orbit simulation program which allows you to view the posi- tions of asteroids and comets as they swing through the solar tam acknowledged, I've decided to name it myself. How about have become the shiniest thing in the field of view, except for "Wimpy"? the Sun and two planets. That's pretty bright, especially for Several years ago, the Russian government held an urgent something that doesn't exist. meeting (attended by top officials and scientists) to discuss High-resolution images are often stored in FITS format, so if what they termed "The 2003 Problem". Few details are avail- you manage to download any you'll need something with which able, but it apparently had something to do with a massive to open and view them. An old copy of Live Picture would be depopulation of the Earth. great if you have it, but another option would be to grab a copy Since then, several "Earth defence" initiatives have been of a FITS browser or viewer software from one of the NASA undertaken by various groups to improve the forecasting of _ sites, e.g., http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/ software.html. close approaches by asteroids and comets. Once again, since there's no "official" confirmation of the One of the most prominent of these groups is a subset of object, I'll have to name it myself. We'll call this one NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, called the NEO (Near "Enigma", because it acts in a very unpredictable manner. Not Earth Objects) Program. The NEO website is one of the best least among its strange behaviours is that it passes through our resources available for monitoring and identifying all our system in a direction contrary to all other solar-orbiting potentially hazardous neighbours. It even has a Java-based objects. orbit simulation program which allows you to view the posi- When I first spied Enigma emerging out of the inky depths of tions of asteroids and comets as they swing through the solar space on May 27, 2002, I thought that I had found a new comet system. and reported it to the powers- The two images at bottom left that-be at SOHO the following show the orbital path (or | THE BLACK DWARF day. When I noticed no discernible tail on __ this "comet", I began to think that I ephemeris) of a recently discov- F A ered object, 2002 NY40. The he Black Dwarf is a smaller cousin of the top one shows the relative posi- Brown Dwar, situated by diameter between had made some sort of gigantic tions of Earth and NY40 one the Jupiter-sized (or larger) brown variety and error. Maybe this was a planet. week before their closest | the much smaller (but incredibly more dense) After all, that seemed to be the approach. The second image | neutron family of star-type objects (quasars, consensus of the people who shows where they were a week pulsars, etc.). tried to talk me out of later. Don't get too upset if you By one current theory, black dwarfs are cooler believing that this was a can't see one of the dots—that's | and denser than most other varieties of star comet. just because they're virtually on | matter, and are thought to have a higher gross Two people told me that it top of each other. specific gravity (sg) than our Sun, albeit in a much was Mercury—a possibility I This encounter posed less dan- | smaller package and with a significantly lower quickly discounted, because ger for the Earth than it did for | total mass. It is theorised to be one of the less Mercury was visible in the our Moon. You see, the distance common mass configurations in stellar circles, field of view at the same time. y wvnich the asteroid was See since it is likely the by-product of a short-life star Me I Rae xed that it was uled to miss us (given S| of minimal relative mass which reached "ignition" ars. But Mars hadn't yet own error allowance) was almost 9 A A oon entered the field of view—and primarily due to its proximity to other stars or as close as the distance between | i h h b wouldn't for several more us and the Moon. Actually, as it a ternative energy . SOUICeS, rather than y weeks. And it wasn't Saturn accumulation of sufficient critical mass. turned out, the object succeeded either, because Saturn entered in missing the Moon by some Black dwarfs may also be some of the oldest the frame a few days later. All 42,000 kilometres. Pretty close. star-related phenomena still extant. The rarity of the other planets were out of The figures displayed on various | these objects may be due to their probable range. So, it had to be a official websites disclose the | tendency to intersect with other bodies during comet—or one really big amount by which it missed | transitional orbits around higher-mass objects. asteroid. Earth, but make no mention of Asteroid, I thought. Well, the object's proximity to the there was no tail, so that was Moon during its flyby. plausible. However, if it were Two of the most interesting SOHO (an acronym for Solar _an asteroid, it would have to be about 8 to 12 kilometres wide and Heliospheric Observatory) views are those which may be _ and be moving at about 28 km/s relative to our own movement. had through the LASCO (Large Angle Spectrometric Working with no assistance from NASA and with only a Coronagraph) C2 (close-up) and C3 (wider-angle) scopes. single point of reference (LASCO C3 images made over a There is a series of C3 images (see http://www.gxo.com) _ period of five days), I found it difficult to compute an accurate showing the position of an interesting object which passed trajectory for the object. It was then that I realised that there through its field of view in late May. This would normally be were two scenarios developing. It was either an 8 to 12-kilo- less than remarkable (probably just another comet), except that metre-wide asteroid—or something 100 times that large (about NASA will not admit to the existence of this particular object. one-quarter the size of our Moon) travelling at a fantastic rate In fact, the last nine frames of this animated sequence (which of speed, perhaps at more than 100 kilometres per second! may also be viewed at http://www.gxo.com) were excised and That simply didn't fit anything I had learned about up until never posted by the SOHO people. Datalogs indicate that the that point, and there was still the matter of its contrary motion. images were actually made, but never posted to the website. This thing seemed to be barging its way into our solar system The catalog numbers of the missing images are: 33090948.fts without a care for any of the traffic signals. — 33090956.fts. I didn't know what to believe until I found the "xxx" image The reason that these images were never posted is that they (centre right) in a SOHO-related database. It appeared to be a would show this object brightening to the extent that it would close-up radiotelescope shot of the object, but it bore no name NEXUS = 31 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2003 www.nexusmagazine.com