<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Asteroide Copito de Nieve

While observing on the night of 19 November 2003, an object was noticed in an unknown orbit. The Minor Planet Center was notified and confirmed the rock on the morning of 26 November, giving it the designation 2003 WZ87. A few hours earlier, Snowflake (Copito de Nieve) had left us after a long illness. From this day on, astrometric data was sought for calculating the most exact orbit possible. This process finished in September 2004 when the asteroid was numbered 95962. On 7 April 2005, at the proposal of the asteroid's discoverer, the Minor Planet Center named it "Copito."

 


Animation Copito (click)


Period : 5.76 ages
Diameter 7 km aprox.


Dedication of Minor Planet Center

(95962) Copito = 2003 WZ87
Discovered 2003 Nov. 19 by J. Manteca at Begues.
Copito de Nieve (1962-2003) represented the first known case of albinism in gorillas. In a 1967 article about the gorilla, Riopelle and Zahl gave it the name ``Snowflake''. The name stuck and was translated into Spanish as above and into Catalan as ``Floquet de Neu''. Copito will always be the star of the Barcelona Zoo.
 

Graphic of bright



En los próximos 26 años no bajará de magnitud 19 . Solo para grandes telescopios o aficionados avanzados.
 

Graphic of Distance to the Earth


En los próximos 26 años Copito estará entre 2.2 Unidades Astronomicas y 4.2 U.A.
1 UA es de 150.000.000 km


Observatories that have collaborated in the monitoring of the asteroid

566 HALEAKALA/NEAT-GEODSS
704 LINCOLN LABORATORY ETS, MEXICO
608 HALEAKALA-AMOS
644 PALOMAR MOUNTAIN, NEAT
699 LOWELL OBSERVATORY, LONEOS
941 OBSERVATORIO DEL PLA DE ARGUINES

 

 




Asteroids(Click)