(also written 2016 NL56) is a

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). ...

(NEO) and a

potentially hazardous object 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 ar ...

(PHA), meaning that it has an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. It is an

Apollo asteroid The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth-crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth ...

, meaning that it is an

Earth-crossing asteroid An Earth-crosser is a near-Earth asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Earth as observed from the ecliptic pole of Earth's orbit. The known numbered Earth-crossers are listed here. Those Earth-crossers whose semi-major axes are smaller than Ea ...

that has an orbit larger than the orbit of the Earth. It was first observed on 12 July 2016, when the asteroid was more than 1 AU from Earth and had a

solar elongation In astronomy, a planet's elongation is the angular separation between the Sun and the planet, with Earth as the reference point. The greatest elongation of a given inferior planet occurs when this planet's position, in its orbital path around t ...

of 163 degrees. This asteroid had been a

lost asteroid A minor planet is "lost" when today's observers cannot find it, because its location is too uncertain to target observations. This happens if the orbital elements of a minor planet are not known accurately enough, typically because the observat ...

until its rediscovery as, and identification with , in July 2021. With additional observations recovered dating back as far as August 2001, the object's previously short

observation arc In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly use ...

of 2.8 days has been extended to almost 20 years, and its roughly calculated orbit has become secure with an

uncertainty parameter The uncertainty parameter ''U'' is introduced by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) to quantify the uncertainty of a perturbed orbital solution for a minor planet. The parameter is a logarithmic scale from 0 to 9 that measures the anticipated longit ...

of 1. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.6–2.2 AU once every 20 months (609 days;

semi-major axis In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the long ...

of 1.41 AU). Its orbit has a high

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...

of 0.54 and an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 5 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic again ...

. Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, ' measures approximately in diameter, for an

absolute magnitude Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse Logarithmic scale, logarithmic Magnitude (astronomy), astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent mag ...

of 20.9 and an

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...

of 0.14. This asteroid has been in both the Risk List of the European Space Agency (ESA) - Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and in the Sentry List of the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

- Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). On 21 July 2021, this object was removed from the Sentry List, where it was previously listed with the highest

Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale The Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale is a logarithmic scale used by astronomers to rate the potential hazard of impact of a near-Earth object (NEO). It combines two types of data—probability of impact and estimated kinetic yield— ...

value due to a possible close encounter with Earth on 5 September 2024. On 28 February 2122, ' will make its closest encounter with Earth at a nominal distance of . Two hours later, it will pass the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

at a nominal distance of . On 11 May 2148, the asteroid will also approach Mars at a nominal distance of .

References

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:2016 NL56 # Minor planet object articles (unnumbered) # Potentially hazardous asteroids Potential impact events caused by near-Earth objects 20160712

See also

References

External links