BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Rock lost in space for 66 years: "Rock lost in space for 66 years

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

Astronomers have seen a large asteroid that they first found 66 years ago and then lost in the depths of space.

It is called Hermes and it entered the record books by making a close approach to the Earth, just beyond the Moon.

But after only five days, it was lost because of the Sun's glare. Despite searches, it was never seen again.

Now scientists have spotted it once more - a faint dot in images taken by an observatory in Arizona. It was soon recognised as lost Hermes by its orbit. "

Out of the darkness

Hermes was discovered by Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg, Germany, on 28 October 1937. He tracked it for only five days and then lost it.

It became famous because it passed within 800,000 kilometres of the Earth - two Earth-Moon distances.

But after 66 years in the dark, Hermes is back.

Early on 15 October, Brian Skiff of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, US, found it again. At first, he did not realise it was Hermes.

"Since we find new near-Earth asteroids fairly regularly (I found, for instance, two other small asteroids also last night), my only reaction upon finding it was that it was unusually bright," he told BBC News Online.



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