This nifty answer describes and provides links to the data of the recovery of near earth object 2012 TC4, and the answer also shows the first actual image of the body for this pass. At apparent magnitude +27 (at about 52 million km) it may be the faintest asteroid to have been imaged to date. It's worth visiting that answer first before reading on here.
This comment points out that 2012 TC4 appears on the Goldstone Asteroid Schedule, a list of upcoming planned observations of asteroids by antennas at the Deep Space Network. Here are the entries for 2012 TC4 in the Upcoming Observations
and Past Observations
tables:
Upcoming Goldstone Observations
DATES TARGET H Notes:
2017 Oct 9-14 2012 TC4 26.7 Close approach = 7.9 Earth radii on Oct. 12. NHATS
Past Goldstone Observations
DATES TARGET Notes:
2012 Oct 2012 TC4 Echoes not detected. Likely equipment issues.
I noticed that the 2012 TC4 observation is labeled as a NHATS, or Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study. I tried to find it in the DATA TABLE of NHATS objects but I don't find it there.
Question: Is one of these more up-to-date than the other? Is 2012 TC4 part of the Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study? What does it really mean if 2012 TC4 is or is not part of NHATS anyway?
H
of26.7
listed for the 2017 observation means? $\endgroup$