Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Spacewatch |
Discovery site | Kitt Peak National Obs. |
Discovery date | 3 April 2002 |
Designations | |
(163249) 2002 GT | |
NEO · PHA · Apollo [1] | |
Orbital characteristics [1] | |
Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
Observation arc | 5114 days (14.00 yr) |
Aphelion | 1.7945 AU (268.45 Gm) |
Perihelion | 0.89422 AU (133.773 Gm) |
1.3444 AU (201.12 Gm) | |
Eccentricity | 0.33483 |
1.56 yr (569.33 d) | |
196.65° | |
0° 37m 56.352s / day (n) | |
Inclination | 6.9681° |
201.76° | |
135.09° | |
Earth MOID | 0.0161099 AU (2.41001 Gm) |
Physical characteristics | |
350-500 m [2] | |
3.7663 h (0.15693 d) | |
18.4 [1] | |
(163249) 2002 GT is an Apollo asteroid with an absolute magnitude of 18.26. [1] It is a potentially hazardous asteroid as its orbit crosses that of Earth. [3]
In 2011, NASA considered sending the unmanned spacecraft Deep Impact toward the asteroid with the aim of performing a flyby [3] in 2020. It was uncertain whether Deep Impact carried sufficient fuel for this operation. [3]
On 24 November 2011 and 4 October 2012, the space probe's thrusters were fired briefly for two trajectory correction maneuvers that targeted Deep Impact for an encounter with 2002 GT in 2020, possibly within a distance of about 200 kilometers. However, funding for the flyby mission was not guaranteed. [4] In June 2013 the asteroid was observed in radar by the Arecibo Observatory. [5]
However, on 8 August 2013 NASA lost communication with the spacecraft, and on 20 September 2013, NASA abandoned further attempts to contact the craft. [6] According to A'Hearn, [7] the most probable reason of software malfunction was a Y2K-like problem (at 11 August 2013 0:38:49 it was 232 deciseconds from 1 January 2000 [8] ).
Deep Impact's possible January 4, 2020 flyby would be a nice one, at a close-approach distance of around 200 kilometers and a relative velocity of 7 kilometers per second. That's both closer and slower than the Hartley 2 flyby (which was at 700 kilometers and 12 kilometers per second).