Sciency Thoughts: Asteroid 2014 JY30 passes the Earth.

Friday, 9 May 2014

Asteroid 2014 JY30 passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2014 JY30 passed by the Earth at a distance of 3 275 000 km (a little over 8.5 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon), slightly after 1.00 am GMT on Sunday 4 May 2014. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, and had it done so it would have presented a minimal risk. 2014 JY30 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 16-49 m (i.e. a spherical object with the same volume would be 16-49 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere between 26 km and 9 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the planet's surface.

The calculated orbit of 2014 JY30. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

2014 JY30 was discovered on 7 May 2014 (three days after its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, which is located in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2014 JY30 implies that it was the 775th asteroid (asteroid Y30) discovered in the first half of May 2014 (period 2014 J).

2014 JY30 has an 557 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit that takes it from 0.79 AU from the Sun (i.e. 79% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.86 AU from the Sun (i.e. 186% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, considerably more than 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).

See also...

Asteroid 2014 GY48 passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2014 GY48 passed by the Earth at a distance of 17 520 000 km (over 45 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon and nearly 12% of the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun), slightly...