Astronomy:2020 XR

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Short description: Apollo near-Earth asteroid


2020 XR
Discovery[1][2]
Discovered byPan-STARRS 2
Discovery siteHaleakala Obs.
Discovery date4 December 2020
Designations
2020 XR
Minor planet category
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch 2020-May-31 (JD 2459000.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc7.8 years[4]
|{{{apsis}}}|helion}}4.0272 astronomical unit|AU (602,460,000 km) (Q)
|{{{apsis}}}|helion}}0.97013 AU (145,129,000 km) (q)
2.4987 AU (373,800,000 km) (a)
Eccentricity0.61174 (e)
Orbital period3.95 yr
Mean anomaly312.19° (M)
Inclination13.947° (i)
Longitude of ascending node249.74° (Ω)
|{{{apsis}}}|helion}}8 December 2020
163.01° (ω)
Earth MOID0.00085 AU (127,000 km; 0.33 LD)
Jupiter MOID1.4 AU (210,000,000 km)
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter~390 meters (1,000 feet)[4]
Absolute magnitude (H)19.8[2][3]


2020 XR is an Apollo near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid roughly 390 meters (1,000 feet) in diameter. With a 5-day observation arc it was briefly listed as having a 1 in 11,000 chance of impacting Earth on 1 December 2028 placing it at the top of the Sentry Risk Table with a Palermo scale rating of -0.70.[4][5]

Discovery

2020 XR was discovered by Pan-STARRS 2 on 4 December 2020,[2] when it was 0.426 astronomical unit|AU (63.7 million km) from Earth and had a solar elongation of 75°. It came to perihelion on 8 December 2020. On 2 January 2021, it passed 0.328 AU (49.1 million km) from Earth.[3]

On 13 December 2020, precovery observations from 2013, 2016, and mid-2020 extended the observation arc from 8 days to 7.8 years allowing the asteroid to be removed from the Sentry Risk Table.[2][4]

2024

It was the Earth perturbations of the asteroid in 2024 that determined if an impact was possible in December 2028. On 4 December 2024, the asteroid will pass 0.0147 AU (2.20 million km; 5.7 LD) from Earth with an uncertainty region of about ±800 km.[3] This will increase the asteroid's orbital period by 10 days.

Orbital period 3 months before and after 2024-Dec-04 Earth approach
Parameter Epoch
(date)
Orbital
Period
Units (days)
Pre-flyby 2024-Sep-04 1441
Post-flyby 2025-Mar-04 1451

2028

On 7 November 2028, the asteroid will pass 0.121 AU (18.1 million km) from Earth.[3] By 1 December 2028 the asteroid will be 0.19 AU (28 million km) from Earth[6] with an uncertainty region of about ±10,000 km.[lower-alpha 1]

Notes

  1. While the observation arc was only a few days, the uncertainty region on 1 December 2028 was approximately a billion km.

References

External links

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