(276033) 2002 AJ129

Mercury-crossing asteroid October 2019 yes #FFC2E0 (276033) 2002 AJ 129 2002 AJ129-orbit (multilingual).svg The orbit is highly elliptical, moving outside Mars and inside Mercury. Positions shown for 31 January 2018 before flyby. NEAT Haleakala Obs. 15 January 2002 (276033) 2002 AJ 129 Apollo NEO PHA Mercury-crosser Venus-crosser 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) 0 14.23 yr (5,199 days) 2.6254 AU 0.1167 AU 1.3711 AU 0.9149 1.61 yr (586 days) 288.23° 0.6139 ms / day 15.449° 138.05° 211.01° 0.0060 AU (2.3 LD) 0.5–1.2 km 18.7 (276033) 2002 AJ 129 is a Mercury-crossing asteroid. It has the ninth-smallest perihelion of all numbered asteroids, after asteroids such as 137924 2000 BD 19, 374158 2004 UL, and 386454 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 km mi 1 us 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. Description 2002 AJ 129 was discovered on 15 January 2002 by astronomers of the NEAT team at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, United States. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 3 February 2002. It is a Mercury-, Venus-, Earth- and Mars-crossing asteroid. With an observation arc of 14 years, it has a well determined orbit and was last observed in 2016. It is classified as an Apollo asteroid because it is a near-Earth asteroid with a semi-major axis larger than Earth's. It is also categorized as a potentially hazardous asteroid, but that does not mean there is a near-term threat of an impact. It is a potentially hazardous asteroid merely as a result of its size (absolute magnitude H ≤ 22) and Earth minimum orbit intersection distance (Earth MOID ≤ 0.05 AU). 2018 approach On 4 February 2018 at 21:31 UT, the asteroid passed about 0.028126 AU km mi on from Earth. The 2018 Earth approach distance was known with a 3-sigma accuracy of ±200 km. Goldstone is scheduled to observe the asteroid from 3 to 6 February. By 4 February 2018 11:00 UT, the asteroid brightened to apparent magnitude 14 and had a solar elongation of more than 100°. 2172 approach On 8 February 2172, the asteroid will pass about 0.00458 AU km mi on from Earth. The 2172 Earth approach distance is known with a 3-sigma accuracy of ±4000 km. As we look even further into the future the known trajectory becomes more divergent. By the Earth approach of 0.24 AU km mi on on 19 February 2196 the uncertainty increases to ±2.4 million km. References 2016-04-10 last obs. JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 276033 (2002 AJ129) https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2276033;cad=1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory https://web.archive.org/web/20180118221442/https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2002AJ129;cad=1 January 18, 2018 live 8 February 2018 276033 (2002 AJ129) Minor Planet Center https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=276033 8 February 2018 AstDys-2 Retrieved 2011 September 13 NeoDys-2 Retrieved 2011 September 13 NEODyS-2 Close approaches List of asteroids with q<0.3075 AU generated by the JPL Small-Body Database Search Engine Retrieved 2011 September 10 MPEC 2002-B14 : 2002 AJ129 IAU Minor Planet Center 2002-01-19 https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K02/K02B14.html 2018-01-19 (K02AC9J) http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/removed.html NEOs Removed from Impact Risks Tables dead https://web.archive.org/web/20020602101400/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/removed.html 2 June 2002 A 'potentially hazardous' asteroid bigger than Burj Khalifa is about to fly near our planet https://www.businessinsider.com/potentially-dangerous-near-earth-object-asteroid-2002-aj129-2018-1 Business Insider January 19, 2018 2018-02-01 Goldstone Radar Observations Planning: Asteroids 2002 AJ129, 2014 SR339, and 2015 BN509 NASA/JPL Asteroid Radar Research Dr. Lance A. M. Benner https://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/2002AJ129/2002AJ129_planning.2018.html 2018-02-03 Asteroid 2002 AJ129 to Fly Safely Past Earth February 4 [2018] NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory 19 January 2018 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7042 8 February 2018 (276033) 2002AJ129 Ephemerides for February 2018 NEODyS (Near Earth Objects Dynamic Site) https://newton.spacedys.com/neodys2/index.php?pc=1.1.3.1&n=276033&oc=500&y0=2018&m0=2&d0=1&h0=0&mi0=0&y1=2018&m1=2&d1=10&h1=0&mi1=0&ti=12.0&tiu=hours 2018-02-03 External links 276033 276033 2002AJ129 276033 (276033) 2002 AJ 129 276033 276033 276033 276033 276033 276033 276033 Category:Near-Earth objects in 2018 20020115