is an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

classified as

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

and

potentially hazardous asteroid A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They are ...

of the

Amor group Amor Group was Scotland's largest independent business technology company before being acquired by Lockheed Martin in September 2013. The business was formed after a £28 million management buyout of Glasgow based Real Time Engineering Ltd. an ...

, approximately in diameter. It passed within 5.4 million kilometers (14 lunar distances) of Earth on 14 June 2012. It was discovered during the night of 10–11 June 2012 by astronomer

Robert H. McNaught Robert H. McNaught (born in Scotland in 1956) is a Scottish-Australian astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University (ANU). He has collaborated with David J. Asher of the Armagh Observator ...

and his colleagues using the 0.5-meter

Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope The Uppsala Schmidt Telescope is a Schmidt telescope located in Australia. It was moved to Siding Spring Observatory from Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1982. The instrument has been used to study the galaxy, asteroids and comets. It was last ded ...

at the

Siding Spring Observatory Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...

in Australia, just four days before its closest approach to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Overview

Arecibo Arecibo (; ) is a city and municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta and Florida. It is about west of San Juan, the ...

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

observations on 19 June 2012 have shown that is about in diameter and that has zero chance of impacting the Earth for at least the next 750 years. A small change of trajectory caused by Earth's gravity was predicted from the 2012 passby. The

Slooh Slooh is a robotic telescope service that can be viewed live through a web browser. It was not the first robotic telescope, but it was the first that offered "live" viewing through a telescope via the web. Other online telescopes traditionally ...

Space Camera streamed live footage of the passby over the Internet. McNaught and

Astronomy magazine ''Astronomy'' is a monthly American magazine about astronomy. Targeting amateur astronomers, it contains columns on sky viewing, reader-submitted astrophotographs, and articles on astronomy and astrophysics for general readers. History ''As ...

columnist Bob Berman hosted the broadcast. "We love it when stuff like this happens, because it's fun to do and the public appreciates it", said Slooh president Patrick Paolucci. The asteroid was the same brightness as a 13th-

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

star, too faint to be seen by the

naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnifying, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope, or eye protection. Vision corrected to normal ...

or a low-end telescope. The next passby for was 27 July 2016 at from Earth.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:2012 LZ1 # Minor planet object articles (unnumbered) Discoveries by Robert H. McNaught # # 20120614 20120610

Overview

See also

References

External links