Discovery [1] | |
---|---|
Discovered by | LINEAR |
Discovery site | Lincoln Laboratory's ETS |
Discovery date | 5 March 2000 (first observation only) |
Designations | |
2000 EM26 | |
NEO · Aten · PHA [1] [2] | |
Orbital characteristics [2] | |
Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 1 [2] ·3 [1] | |
Observation arc | 20.15 yr (7,358 d) |
Aphelion | 1.1985 AU |
Perihelion | 0.4358 AU |
0.8171 AU | |
Eccentricity | 0.4667 |
270 days | |
Average orbital speed | 12.37 km/s [3] |
272.21° | |
1° 20m 3.48s / day | |
Inclination | 3.8445° |
345.14° | |
24.171° | |
Earth MOID | 0.0188 AU (7.3 LD) |
Physical characteristics | |
Mean diameter | 110 m (est. at 0.14) [4] |
22.5 [1] [2] | |
2000 EM26 is a sub-kilometer near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Aten group, approximately 110 meters (360 feet) in diameter. It was first observed by astronomers of the LINEAR program on 5 March 2000 and followed until 14 March 2000, by which time it had dimmed to apparent magnitude 20 [1] and was 40° from the Moon. [5] By 17 March 2000 it was only 4 degrees from a 90% waxing gibbous moon. [5] It has never been listed on the Sentry Risk Table because none of the potential orbital solutions create a risk of impact in the next ~100 years. The asteroid safely passed Earth on 17–18 February 2014. [6] Due to a then-poorly determined orbit, the asteroid may have been significantly further from Earth and dozens of degrees from where the telescope was pointed during the 2014 approach.
The 2014 approach was broadcast live (YouTube archive [7] ) on the Internet at 09:00 pm EST (02:00 UTC), 18 February 2014, by the Slooh community observatory. [3] [8] [9] Slooh's observatory on Mount Teide in Spain's Canary Islands was iced over at the time, so images from the Slooh observatory in Dubai were used to attempt detection of the asteroid. At the time of the broadcast, no obvious image of the asteroid could be seen. [6] Some viewers complained by Twitter that it was boring when the object was never shown in the images, while others said that "boring" was a good outcome for a pass-by. [10]
2000 EM26 is an Aten-family asteroid, [2] and as such is often near the glare of the Sun as the asteroid seldom travels outside Earth's orbit when the Earth is nearby. The orbit was poorly constrained in 2014 since the asteroid had an observation arc of only 9 days creating an orbital uncertainty of 7. [2] Since the asteroid had not been observed since 14 March 2000, the uncertainty region had kept increasing. [2] During the 2014 approach, 17 February 2014 was the first day that the nominal orbit had a solar elongation more than 90 degrees from the Sun making it easier to recover under a dark sky. [11] Using the nominal orbit, the asteroid was expected to have an apparent magnitude of about 16 [11] and pass 0.02 AU (3,000,000 km ; 1,900,000 mi ) from Earth. [2] Closest approach (perigee-geocentrical) was around 00:15 UTC on 18 February plus or minus about 13 hours. [2] Even with an observation arc of 9 days, it was known that the minimum possible close approach distance to Earth on 18 February 2014 was 0.018 AU (2,700,000 km; 1,700,000 mi) with a small chance that the asteroid would pass as far as 0.13 AU (19,000,000 km; 12,000,000 mi) from Earth. [2] Due to the uncertainty region of the asteroid, the asteroid could have been 75 degrees from the nominal position in the sky on 18 February 2014. [11]
2000 EM26 was recovered on 24 February 2017 at magnitude 21, extending the observation arc to 17 years. [12] It is now known that 2000 EM26 passed 0.03665 AU (5,483,000 km; 3,407,000 mi) from Earth on 17 February 2014. [2]
With an absolute magnitude of 22.5, [2] the asteroid's diameter is estimated around 80–190 meters (260–620 feet) in diameter, for a range in albedo of 0.27 to 0.05 depending on whether the object is of stony or carbonaceous composition. For a standard albedo of 0.14, it translates to a mean diameter of 110 meters. [4]
(276033) 2002 AJ129, provisional designation 2002 AJ129, is a Mercury-crossing asteroid. It has the ninth-smallest perihelion of all numbered asteroids, after asteroids such as 2000 BD19, 2004 UL, and 2008 XM. It makes close approaches to all of the inner planets and asteroid 4 Vesta. The asteroid is estimated to be between 0.5–1.2 kilometers (0.3–0.7 mi) across. In January 2018 there was much media hype about this asteroid being classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, although there is no known threat of an impact for hundreds if not thousands of years. The media has compared the size of the asteroid to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
2010 XC15 (also written 2010 XC15) is an Aten near-Earth asteroid and potentially hazardous object that spends most of its time inside of the orbit of Earth. It has an observation arc of 10 years and an Uncertainty Parameter of 1. It was discovered on 5 December 2010 by the Catalina Sky Survey at an apparent magnitude of 17.5 using a 0.68-metre (27 in) Schmidt.
2009 RR micro-asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Apollo group. It was discovered on 11 September 2009 by the Catalina Sky Survey at an apparent magnitude of 19.5 using a 0.68-meter (27 in) Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. 2009 RR was the only asteroid discovered before 2014 that was predicted to potentially pass inside the orbit of the Moon during 2014. The asteroid has an estimated diameter of 26 meters (85 ft) and is listed on the Sentry Risk Table. It is not large enough to qualify as a potentially hazardous object.
2011 XC2 (also written 2011 XC2) is a near-Earth asteroid roughly 60–140 meters (200–460 ft) in diameter that passed less than 1 lunar distance from Earth on 3 December 2011.
2014 DX110 is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately 30 meters in diameter. It passed less than 1 lunar distance from Earth on 5 March 2014. With an absolute magnitude of 25.7, this asteroid is potentially the largest asteroid to come inside the orbit of the Moon since 2013 PJ10 on 4 August 2013. The close approach was webcast live by Slooh and Virtual Telescope.
2014 HQ124 is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Aten group, approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) in diameter. It passed 3.25 lunar distances (LD) from Earth on 8 June 2014. It was discovered on 23 April 2014 by NEOWISE. It is estimated that an impact event would have had the energy equivalent of 2,000 megatons of TNT and would have created a 5 km (3 mi) impact crater. The news media misleadingly nicknamed it The Beast. 2014 HQ124 previously passed this close to Earth in 1952 and will not again until at least 2307. Radar imaging suggests it may be a contact binary.
2014 LY21 is a near-Earth asteroid of the Aten group, approximately 4–8 meters (13–26 feet) in diameter. On 3 June 2014 around 17:38 UT (± 3 hours), it is crudely estimated to have passed about 0.00013 AU (19,000 km) from Earth. The asteroid was discovered on 2 June 2014 by the Mount Lemmon Survey at an apparent magnitude of 21 using a 1.5-meter (59 in) reflecting telescope.
2014 OO6 (also written 2014 OO6) is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid discovered in 2014 and was the most dangerous one discovered in 2014 that remained on the Sentry Risk Table as of early December 2014. The asteroid is estimated to be roughly 75 meters (246 ft) in diameter and had a 1 in 83,000 chance of impacting Earth on 11 January 2051. However, the nominal best-fit orbit shows that 2014 OO6 will be 1.5 AU (220,000,000 km; 140,000,000 mi) from Earth on 11 January 2051.
2007 VE191 is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as near-Earth asteroid of the Apollo group that was listed on the Sentry Risk Table.
2014 XL7 is a near-Earth object and Apollo asteroid, approximately 230 meters (750 feet) in diameter. It was the most dangerous potentially hazardous asteroid on Sentry Risk Table upon its discovery by the Mount Lemmon Survey in December 2014. At the time, the asteroid had a cumulative 1 in 83000 chance of impacting Earth on 4–5 June between the years 2048 and 2084. After the object's observation arc had been extended to 35 days, it was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 15 January 2015. Since then the asteroid's orbit has been secured. Although it has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance of less than one lunar distance, there are no projected close encounters with Earth in the foreseeable future, with its closest passage to occur in May 2046, still millions of kilometers away.
2015 AZ43 (also written 2015 AZ43) is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid roughly 70 meters in diameter. On 10 February 2015 with a 29.5-day observation arc, it showed a 1 in 5,880 chance of impacting Earth on 27 February 2107. However, the NEODyS nominal best-fit orbit shows that 2015 AZ43 will be 2.8 AU (420,000,000 km; 260,000,000 mi) from Earth on 27 February 2107. A (non-impacting) Earth close approach in 2056 makes future trajectories diverge. It was removed from the JPL Sentry Risk Table on 23 February 2015 using JPL solution 26 with an observation arc of 40 days that included radar data.
2013 TX68 is an Apollo asteroid and near-Earth object discovered on 6 October 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey, during which it was near a close approach of 5.4 Lunar distances (LD) from the Earth. The asteroid only has a 10-day observation arc which makes long-term predictions of its position less certain. It was observed for three days as it approached Earth in the night sky starting with the sixth of October, 2013. Then it became unobservable by being between the Earth and the Sun, then not recovered due to its small size and dimness. Precovery images by Pan-STARRS from 29 September 2013 were announced on 11 February 2016 that extended the observation arc to 10 days. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 11 February 2016, so there is no risk of impact from this object for the next hundred years or more. The asteroid was last observed on 9 October 2013.
2017 DR109, is a micro-asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Apollo group and Aten group, respectively. It is currently trapped in a 1:1 mean motion resonance with the Earth of the horseshoe type. The object was first observed on 27 February 2017, by astronomers of the Catalina Sky Survey conducted at Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, United States.
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2013 GM3 is a micro-asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Aten group, approximately 20 meters in diameter. It was first observed on 3 April 2013, by astronomers of the Mount Lemmon Survey conducted at the Mount Lemmon Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, United States.
2018 XB4 (also written 2018 XB4) is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid roughly 53 meters (170 feet) in diameter. It was discovered on 13 December 2018 when the asteroid was about 0.125 AU (18,700,000 km; 11,600,000 mi) from Earth and had a solar elongation of 146°. It passed closest approach to Earth on 1 January 2019. Of the asteroids discovered in 2018, it had the highest Palermo scale rating at –3.6. In mid-2019 it was recovered which extended the observation arc to 177 days and was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 12 June 2019. It is now known that on 22 June 2092 the asteroid will pass about 0.033±0.015 AU from Earth.
2018 VP1 is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid roughly 2 meters (7 feet) in diameter. The asteroid had a 0.41% chance (1 in 240) of impacting Earth on 2 November 2020 01:12 UT. It was discovered on 3 November 2018 when it was about 0.003 AU (450,000 km; 280,000 mi) from Earth and had a solar elongation of 165 degrees. The asteroid has a short 12.9 day observation arc. It was last observed on 16 November 2018 by the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope at apparent magnitude 26 pushing the telescope close to the limiting magnitude.
2006 QQ23 is a sub-kilometre asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object of the Aten group that is potentially hazardous only as the orbit evolves over millennia. It was first observed on 21 August 2006 by the Siding Spring Survey. On 10 August 2019, the object safely passed 7.4 million kilometres (4.6 million miles) from Earth. With a 12 year observation arc it has a well determined orbit and is not a threat for the foreseeable future.
1979 XB is a lost asteroid with a short observation arc of 3.9 days that cannot be recovered with targeted observations and awaits serendipitous survey observations. It is classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group and is estimated to be 660 meters in diameter. The unnumbered minor planet has a poorly constrained orbit and has not been observed in 44 years. It has been listed on the Sentry Risk Table since the list started in 2002. With a cumulative Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale of −2.72, the poorly known orbit and assumed size place 1979 XB third on an unconstrained listing of the Sentry Risk Table.
2017 QC36 is a near-Earth object and a potentially hazardous asteroid of the Aten group, It measures approximately 200 meters (660 feet) in diameter and was briefly observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer on 18 August 2017 before it became a lost asteroid on the following day. It was later recovered in 2021 from archival Pan-STARRS and Cerro Tololo observations.