2007_TU24

<span class="nowrap">2007 TU<sub>24</sub></span>

2007 TU24

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2007 TU24 is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid that was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona on 11 October 2007. Imaging radar has estimated that it is 250 meters (820 ft) in diameter.[3] The asteroid passed 554,209 kilometer (344,370 mile or 1.4-lunar distance)[5] from Earth on 29 January 2008 at 08:33 UTC. (At the time of the passage it was believed the closest for any known potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) of this size before 2027,[6] but in 2010 2005 YU55 was measured to be 400 meters in diameter.) At closest approach 2007 TU24 had an apparent magnitude of 10.3 and was about 50 times fainter than the naked eye can see. It required about a 3-inch (76 mm) telescope to be seen.[3]

Quick Facts Discovery, Discovered by ...

Impact risk assessment

From the date of discovery of asteroid 2007 TU24 on 11 October 2007, a total of 316 observations of it had been made by 31 January 2008, spanning 112 days.[1] Now the asteroid has an observation arc of about 3 years and the trajectory is well defined.[1] It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 4 December 2007 at 14:05 UTC.[7]

2008 passage

A series of low-resolution radar images of asteroid 2007 TU24

Goldstone Observatory carried out radar observations on January 23 and 24 January 2008. As of then, the orbit of the asteroid was known with such a high precision that scientists were able to calculate close approaches from the year 67 AD to 2141 AD.[8] On 29 January 2008 at 08:33 UTC, 2007 TU24 passed by the earth at a nominal distance of 0.0037043 AU (554,160 km; 344,340 mi) with a relative speed of 9.248 km/s.[2]

Observations from Arecibo Observatory were taken on 1–4 February.[3] It is a contact binary asteroid.[9]

Animation of two photos taken from Slooh Teide observatory on 31 January 2008

Other close approaches

See also

References

  1. [1]
    JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 2007TU24
  2. [2]
    "JPL Close-Approach Data: (2007 TU24)" (2010-10-08 last obs (arc=2.99 years)). Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  3. [3]
    "NASA Scientists Get First Images of Earth Flyby Asteroid". NASA/JPL. 25 January 2008. Archived from the original on 29 January 2008. Retrieved 26 January 2008.[dead link]
  4. [4]
    radius of 0.125 km; volume of a sphere * maximum likely density of 3 g/cm3 (though it could be a loose rubble pile) yields an improbable mass of 2.45×1010 kg and an improbable escape velocity of 0.58 km/h.
  5. [5]
    "Asteroid Zooms by Earth". NASA/JPL. 29 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  6. [6]
    Near-Earth Asteroid 2007 TU24 to Pass Close to Earth on Jan. 29 - Should be Observable with Modest Sized Telescopes Archived 2008-01-24 at the Wayback Machine
  7. [7]
    NEOs Removed from Impact Risks Tables
  8. [8]
    2007 TU24planning.doc Archived 2008-01-20 at the Wayback Machine
  9. [9]
    Lance A. M. Benner (18 November 2013). "Binary and Ternary near-Earth Asteroids detected by radar". NASA/JPL Asteroid Radar Research. Archived from the original on 8 June 2004. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
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