THE last 鈥渕issing鈥� asteroid thought to orbit the Solar System has finally
been found.
Discovered in 1911 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa, asteroid 719,
nicknamed Albert, was named and numbered after its orbit was calculated from a
month of observations. But its orbit was not known precisely enough to find it
again. Other lost asteroids have since been rediscovered, the last in 1991.
Earlier this month, the Spacewatch telescope in Arizona spotted and tracked a
faint asteroid which Gareth Williams of the Minor Planet Center at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics confirmed was the missing
3-kilometre-long Albert. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a long time, but I鈥檓 very glad I got it,鈥�
Williams says. Albert鈥檚 4.28-year orbit brings it within 30 million kilometres
of the Earth every 30 years.
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