Saturday 16 April 2016

Asteroid 2016 GO134 passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2016 GO134 passed by the Earth at a distance of 332 000 km (0.86 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 0.22% of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 7.35 pm GMT on Friday 6 April 2016. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented no threat. 2016 GO134 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 5-18 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 5-18 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to explode in an airburst (an explosion caused by superheating from friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is greater than that caused by simply falling, due to the orbital momentum of the asteroid) in the atmosphere btween 40 and 24 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface.

  The calculated orbit of  2016 GO134JPL Small Body Database.

2016 GO134 was discovered on 6 April 2016 (the day of its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2016 GO134 implies that the asteroid was the 3364th object (object O134) discovered in the first half of April 2016 (period 2016 G).

2016 GO134 has a 1371 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 7.11° to the plane of the Solar System, that takes it from 0.85 AU from the Sun (i.e. 85% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 3.99 AU from the Sun (i.e, 399% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, considerably more than twice the distance at which the planet Mars orbits the Sun). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). This means that 2016 GO134 has occasional close encounters with the Earth, with the next predicted in August 2125, as well as with the planet Jupiter, with the next predicted in March 2131.

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/lyrid-meteors-to-be-visible-next-week.htmlLyrid Meteors to be visible next week.        The Lyrid Meteors will be visible between Saturday 16 and Monday 25 April 2006, with peak acticity on Friday 22 April, when the number of meteors may exceed 20 per hour. However with the...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/asteroid-2016-fb13-passes-earth.htmlAsteroid 2016 FB13 passes the Earth.   Asteroid 2016 FB13 passed by the Earth at a distance of 474 500 km (1.23 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 0.32% of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 1.35 am GMT on Sunday 3 April...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/brieght-fireball-meteor-seen-over-much.htmlBright 'fireball' meteor seen over much of New Zealand.                                         Witnesses have reported seeing a bright fireball type meteor over much of New Zealand at about 9.00 pm local time on Tuesday 5 April 2016. The meteor...
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.