2004 FU162
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
2004 FU162 (also written 2004 FU162) is a meteoroid which passed within about one Earth radius of the surface of the Earth at 15:35 UTC on March 31 2004, or 2.02 Earth radii from the centre of the Earth. This set a record for the closest known approach to date. The discovery was not announced until August 22 2004.
By comparison, geostationary satellites orbit at 5.6 Earth radii and GPS satellites orbit at 3.17 Earth radii from the centre of the Earth.
It was only observed four times in the space of 44 minutes and could not be followed up, and no pre-discovery images have been found. Nevertheless, its calculated orbit is considered "quite determinate". The diameter is estimated to be about six metres, which means it would have burned up before striking the ground in the case of an impact.
An object must be at least 50 m across before it can be classified as an asteroid.
See also
References
- MPEC 2004-Q22 (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K04/K04Q22.html)
- http://www.HohmannTransfer.com/mn/0408/22.htm
- http://www.HohmannTransfer.com/mn/0408/24.htm
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| (For other objects and regions, see: Binary asteroids, Asteroid moons and the Solar system) |
| (For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids. For pronunciation, see: Pronunciation of asteroid names.) |
