is a micro-
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 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). ...
of the
Aten group, approximately in diameter. It was first observed on 26 February 2018, by astronomers of the
Mount Lemmon Survey
Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS) is a part of the Catalina Sky Survey with List of observatory codes, observatory code List of observatory codes#G96, G96. MLS uses a cassegrain reflector telescope (with 10560x10560-pixel camera at the f/1.6 prime focu ...
at
Mount Lemmon Observatory
Mount Lemmon Observatory (MLO), also known as the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory, is an astronomical observatory located on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains approximately northeast of Tucson, Arizona (US). The site in the Coronad ...
, Arizona, five days prior to its sub-lunar close encounter with Earth at less than 0.3
lunar distance.
Orbit and classification
belongs to the
Aten group of asteroids,
which
cross the orbit of Earth. Contrary to the much larger
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
s, Atens have a
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 less than 1
AU, that is, a period less than a year (Earth).
Based on an
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 less than 2 days, it orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.82–1.15 AU once every 12 months (358 days; semi-major axis of 0.986 AU). Its orbit has an
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 0.17 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 ...
.
The body's observation arc begins at Mount Lemmon with its first observation.
Close encounters
2018 flyby
On 2 March 2018, at 05:54
UT, this object passed Earth at a nominal distance of which corresponds to a distance of .
The object also approached 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 similar distance of the day before.
It was the 18th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1
lunar distance (LD) since the start of 2018 and 6th closest. Five days earlier, a similar object, ,
came within 175,000 miles (284,000 km). However, the two encounters were unrelated and neither of them represent any hazard to the Earth ''(also see )''.
MOID and projections
has a notably low
minimum orbital intersection distance
Minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is a measure used in astronomy to assess potential close approaches and collision risks between astronomical objects. It is defined as the distance between the closest points of the osculating orbits of ...
with Earth of , or 0.06 LD.
The asteroid's next encounter with Earth will be on 26 February 2019 at a much larger distance of . It closest future approach is predicted to occur on 28 February 2064, then at a nominal distance of .
Physical characteristics
Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, measures between 6 and 12 meters 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 28.4, and an assumed
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 ...
between 0.057 and 0.20, which represent typical values for
carbonaceous
Carbon () is a chemical element with the chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent bond, covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to gro ...
and
stony asteroids, respectively.
As of 2018, no rotational
lightcurve
In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequ ...
of this object has been obtained from
photometric observations. The body's
rotation period
The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...
,
pole
Pole may refer to:
Astronomy
*Celestial pole, the projection of the planet Earth's axis of rotation onto the celestial sphere; also applies to the axis of rotation of other planets
*Pole star, a visible star that is approximately aligned with the ...
and shape remain unknown.
Numbering and naming
This
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
has neither been numbered nor
named.
References
External links
Near-Earth Asteroid 2018 DV1 very close encounter: an image (1 Mar 2018) The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:2018 DV1
#
Minor planet object articles (unnumbered)
Discoveries by MLS
Near-Earth objects in 2018
20180226