2019_UN13

<span class="nowrap">2019 UN<sub>13</sub></span>

2019 UN13

3rd closest non-impacting Earth approach

2019 UN13 is a small near-Earth asteroid roughly 1–2 meters in diameter. Even though the asteroid was in the night sky for months, it was fainter than the sky survey limit of apparent magnitude 24 until 29 October 2019 when the asteroid was two million km from Earth.[7] It was discovered on October 31, 2019, passing 6,200 km above Earth's surface.[8][9]

Quick Facts Discovery, Discovered by ...

2020 QG and 2011 CQ1 are the only asteroids known where the nominal orbit passed closer to the surface of Earth.[6] Other asteroids that passed very close to Earth include 2004 FU162, 2018 UA, and 2019 AS5.

An impact by 2019 UN13 would be less significant than the 2018 LA impact.

2019 flyby

5 minute markers of trajectory above the earth near closest approach

Orbit changes

The close approach to Earth lifted the asteroid's aphelion point (furthest distance from the Sun) from 1.33 AU (inside the orbit of Mars) to 2.06 AU (near the edge of the inner asteroid belt). The approach changed the orbit from an Aten asteroid with a semi-major axis less than 1 AU to an Apollo asteroid with a semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth (> 1 AU).

Orbital elements for April 2019 and April 2020
2019[3] 2020
Orbit typeAtenApollo
Perihelion
(closest distance to the Sun)		0.64 AU0.83 AU
Semi-major axis
(average distance from the Sun)		0.98 AU1.4 AU
Aphelion
(furthest distance from the Sun)		1.3 AU2.0 AU
Orbital period358 days637 days

With the new orbit, 2019 UN13 will come to perihelion 0.83 AU from the Sun on 15 December 2019. Without perturbations, the previous orbit would have come to perihelion in January 2020.

Future

There is a small chance the asteroid will pass 0.0001 AU (15,000 km) from Mars on 26 October 2023.[3] There is also a 1 in 3 million chance the asteroid will impact Earth on 1 November 2111.[4]

See also

More information Asteroid, Date ...

References

  1. [1]
    "2019 UN13". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  2. [2]
    "Pseudo-MPEC for C0PPEV1". Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  3. [3]
    "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: (2019 UN13)" (2019-10-31 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on 3 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  4. [4]
    "Earth Impact Risk Summary: 2019 UN13". NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office. Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  5. [5]
    "esa: 2019 UN13". ESA. Archived from the original on 3 November 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  6. [6]
    Go to https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/ and for Table Settings select "Nominal distance <= 1 LD", "Past only" and sort by "CA distance nominal"
  7. [7]
    "2019UN13 Ephemerides for October 2019". NEODyS (Near Earth Objects – Dynamic Site). Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  8. [8]
    "Spooky Halloween asteroid flyby one of the closest near misses ever seen"..
  9. [9]
    Newly-discovered #asteroid C0PPEV1 Twitter message
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