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.
...
and
near-Earth object approximately in diameter.
As a member of the
Aten group almost all of its orbit is closer to the Sun than Earth is. On 24 November 1994 it passed about from the Moon.
[ First imaged at ]Kitami Observatory
Kitami Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the Kitami-Abashiri Region Cultural Centre in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. Its observatory code is 400. It is 0.72344 Earth radii from the rotation axis and +0.68811 Earth radii from the equatorial ...
on 26 November 1994,Carolyn S. Shoemaker
Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 – August 13, 2021) was an American astronomer and a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She discovered 32 comets (then a record for the most by an individual) and more than 500 astero ...
at Palomar Observatory
Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
on 28 November 1994.Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea ( or ; ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the highest point in the state of Hawaii and second-highest peak of an island on Earth. The peak is ...
in March 2016.
Description
orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.5–1.1 AU once every 8 months (240 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.40 and an inclination of 7 ° with respect to the ecliptic.[ While listed on the Sentry Risk Table the range for the 2046 close approach distance varied from to from Earth.][
While listed on the Sentry Risk Table,][ It had about a cumulative 1 in 9090 chance of impacting the Earth.][ The formerly poorly known trajectory of this asteroid was further complicated by close approaches to Venus and Mercury.][ It was recovered by ]Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea ( or ; ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the highest point in the state of Hawaii and second-highest peak of an island on Earth. The peak is ...
in March 2016,megatons
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a m ...
of TNT,[ roughly 1.5 times that of most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated ( Tsar Bomba).
]
See also
* Lost asteroids
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 ...
References
External links
List Of Aten Minor Planets (by designation)
''Minor Planet Center''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:1994 WR12
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Minor planet object articles (unnumbered)
Discoveries by Carolyn S. Shoemaker
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