2022 BZ3

[bigmasterdrago]

Appears to be in the latest MPCORB as the most recent entry with a provisional designation. So just added. This appears to be a find well after close approach if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly.

Number  Designation     Epoch          a                e             i             Node          w               MA          H    Slope   

0            2022 BZ3    2459600.5  1.8773079  0.1201187 21.76572  102.08986  318.28056  54.47922  19.87  0.15


The really odd thing is that Horizons says "No Matching Bodies Found" and a search at https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search says "Unknown Object: 2022 BZ3". At 7:30CST Jan 30. I'm assuming that those services are just not updated yet which seems strange as that rock "is" in the MPC.

Maybe if I had waited several hours, it would be there.

Also a fresh download of the MPC NEA Today does not bring it in - "No Match". I'm hesitant to get the full MPC using ST for fear of hosing the db but I did it anyway. The download, extraction, reading and epoch building process takes ~30 minutes. Yes, I know, my desktop PC is old and only has 16Gb RAM and an i5 processor ;=[

After doing that, St could find the rock.

My question is would it be better to always do a single minor planet download rather than refresh the full MPC db?

[PMSchu]

Hi BMD,

I did the download of MPC's NEAs at Today's Epoch using ST4v Pro, ~1130 EST and 2022 BZ3 wasn't included. After just reading your message, I did a single MP download from the MPC & got the elements for 2022 BZ3 at epoch 2022 Jan 21 0000. Apparently this one hasn't been included in the NEA file yet. I guess this all takes time, especially on a weekend. I don't know how automated their processing is. The addition to the MPDB was very fast for just a single object, so you might try adding it if you really want it in your DB. Much safer than adding the elements yourself. You'll get the Jan 21 epoch elements though.

H=19.87 is pretty big. It's a Mars crosser, >21.4 magnitude & Re 0.83 AU.

Phil S.