astro.wikisort.org - Asteroid

2022 NX₁ is a near-Earth object roughly 10 meters (33 ft) in diameter, that orbits the Sun but makes slow close approaches to the Earth–Moon system. Between 11 June 2022 and 3 July 2022 (a period of 22 days) it passed within Earth's Hill sphere (roughly 0.01 AU (1.5 million km; 0.93 million mi)) at a low relative velocity and became temporarily captured by Earth's gravity, with a geocentric orbital eccentricity of less than 1[7] and negative geocentric orbital energy.[8] Due to its Earth-like orbit, the object could be of artificial origin or lunar ejecta.[1] The closest approach to Earth in 2022 was 26 June 2022 at roughly 812,200 km (504,700 mi) when it had a relative velocity of 0.96 km/s (2,100 mph).[3] It was last near Earth around 16 January 1981 when it passed about 600,000 km (370,000 mi) from Earth.[3] It will return to be temporarily captured in December 2051.[8]

Entering and Exiting Geocentric Orbit
(assuming the Earth+Asteroid are the only objects in the Solar System)

Epoch	Earth distance[9]	Geocentric eccentricity[7]	Apogee[7]	Orbital period[7]
2022-Jun-11	0.0077 AU (1.15 million km)	1.024	${\displaystyle \infty }$	${\displaystyle \infty }$
2022-Jun-12	0.0075 AU (1.12 million km)	0.997	3.6 AU (540 million km)	1,395.02 years (509,532 d)
2022-Jun-21	0.0058 AU (0.87 million km)	0.815	0.054 AU (8.1 million km)	2.92 years (1,067 d)
2022-Jul-02	0.0058 AU (0.87 million km)	0.987	0.82 AU (123 million km)	154.59 years (56,465 d)
2022-Jul-03	0.0059 AU (0.88 million km)	1.008	${\displaystyle \infty }$	${\displaystyle \infty }$

2022 NX₁

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Moonbase South Observatory
Discovery date	2 July 2022
Designations
MPC designation	2022 NX1
Alternative designations	xkos033
Minor planet category	Artificial?[1] NEO Apollo risk listed[2]
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch 2022-Aug-09 (JD 2459800.5)
Uncertainty parameter 2
Observation arc	31 days
Aphelion	1.0258 AU (Q)
Perihelion	0.98646 AU (q)
Semi-major axis	1.0062 AU (a)
Eccentricity	0.019599 (e) (Geocentric hyperbolic e=1.1)[4]
Orbital period (sidereal)	1.00929 years
Mean anomaly	207.80° (M)
Inclination	1.1382° (i)
Longitude of ascending node	286.06° (Ω)
Time of perihelion	2022-Dec-14 @ 0.9957 AU[5]
Argument of perihelion	182.68° (ω)
Earth MOID	0.0045 AU (670,000 km; 1.8 LD)
Jupiter MOID	3.9 AU (580,000,000 km)
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	~9 m (30 ft)[2] 7–14 meters
Absolute magnitude (H)	28.07[6]

The object was discovered on 2 July 2022 by Moonbase South Observatory in Namibia when it had a deep Southern Hemisphere declination of –59° in the constellation of Pavo.[1]

With a 56-day observation arc the object shows a 1.2% chance of impacting Earth between the years of 2075–2122.[2] This asteroid experienced a temporarily-captured flyby in 1981, had another one in 2022, and the 31-day observation arc predicts it may become a temporarily-captured orbiter in 2051.[8]

See also

• 1991 VG – near-Earth asteroid temporarily captured by Earth after its discovery in 1991
• 2006 RH120 – the first temporary Earth satellite discovered in situ 2006
• 2020 CD3 – another temporary Earth satellite discovered in 2020
• 2020 SO – a suspected near-Earth object identified as a rocket booster from the Surveyor 2 mission

References

External links

• It came from below. Newly-discovered 2022 NX1 briefly entered Earth's orbit (ecc < 1) through the L1 point. (Tony Dunn 17 July 2022)

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