, provisional designation ', is a sub-kilometer sized, peanut-shaped

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. ...

on a highly eccentric orbit, classified as near-Earth object 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

Apollo group Apollo Education Group, Inc. is an American corporation based in the South Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona, with an additional corporate office in Chicago, Illinois. The company owns and operates several higher-learning institutions, including ...

. This

contact binary In astronomy, a contact binary is a binary star system whose component stars are so close that they touch each other or have merged to share their gaseous envelopes. A binary system whose stars share an envelope may also be called an overcontac ...

was discovered on 23 February 2006, by astronomers of the LINEAR program at the

Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...

near Socorro, New Mexico, in the United States. On 10 February 2014, it passed 6.25 lunar distances from Earth. The asteroid is approximately 400 meters in diameter and has a

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 ...

of 5.77 hours.

Classification and orbit

' is a member of the

, which are Earth-crossing asteroids and the largest group of

near-Earth asteroid 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). ...

s. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.3–2.4 AU once every 19 months (583 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 1.37 AU). Its orbit has a high eccentricity of 0.78 and an inclination of 12 ° with respect to the ecliptic. As no precoveries were taken, the body's observation arc begins with its discovery observation in 2006.

Close approaches

The asteroid has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of , which corresponds to 6.4 lunar distances (LD). On 10 February 2014, it passed Earth close to this theoretical minimum distance at 6.25 LD, or . This makes it a

(PHA), a body with a threatening close approach to the Earth, due to its low MOID and large size ( absolute magnitude of 18.9). PHAs are defined as objects with an absolute magnitude of 22 or brighter – which generically corresponds to a diameter of approximately 140 meters – and a MOID that is smaller than 0.05 AU or 19.5 LD.

Physical characteristics

' is an assumed stony S-type asteroid. This asteroid is a typical

, with two distinctive lobes on either end that appear to be in contact, giving it a peanut-like shape.

Diameter, shape and albedo

On the night of 11 February 2014, NASA scientists conducted a radar imaging session using the 70-meter dish at Goldstone Observatory. These observations, using delay-Doppler radar imaging, revealed a 400×200 meters sized body, while the ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' calculates a diameter of almost 500 meters, based on an assumed standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and an absolute magnitude of 18.9. Amateur and professional astronomers helped track ' in the preceding days, so they would know just where to point the large antenna.

Rotation period

Goldstone's radiometric observations also gave a

of approximately 6 hours. Photometric follow-up observations led to two light-curves that gave a refined period of 5.77 and 5.78 hours with a high brightness variation of 1.05 and 0.9, respectively (). Its high brightness amplitude is also indicative for its elongated shape.

Naming

As of 2018, this minor planet remains unnamed.

Notes

References

External links

Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:2006 DP14 388188 388188 388188 388188 388188 20140210 20060223