(89959) 2002 NT7

Template:Mp (provisional designation Template:Mp) is a near-Earth object with a diameter of 1.4 kilometers and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group.<ref name="jpldata" /><ref name="MPC-object" /> It has a well determined orbit with an observation arc of 64 years including precovery images by Palomar Observatory dating back to 1954.<ref name="MPC-object"/>

Template:Mp became the first object observed by NASA's NEO program to be assigned a positive rating on both the Torino scale and the Palermo scale<ref name="hohmanntransfer"/> for a small chance of an impact on 1 February 2019, however it passed Earth at roughly Template:Convert on 13 January 2019 with an uncertainty region of around ±108 km.<ref name=jpl-close/>

Discovery

It was discovered on 9 July 2002 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team (LINEAR) at the U.S. Lincoln Laboratory Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico.<ref name="MPEC2002-N38" /> At the time of discovery it only had a 6-day observation arc of 9–14 July,<ref name="MPEC2002-N38" /> which poorly constrained possible future positions of the asteroid.

Despite inflammatory press reports, the object had a "low probability" of impact, approximately one in a million, for 1 February 2019.<ref name=planetary/> On 22 July 2002, NEODyS posted a positive 0.18 Palermo scale rating.<ref name="hohmanntransfer"/> Further observations, especially from Erich Meyer, quickly lowered the probability. [1]. On 25 July 2002, the hazard rating on the Palermo scale was lowered to −0.25. However, the discovery of the object with an initial Palermo scale rating of 0.06<ref name= "BBC-NT7"/> was a historical event for the NEO observation program.

Template:Mp was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 1 August 2002 (23 days after discovery), meaning there is no risk of an impact by it in the next 100 years.<ref name="removed"/> On 13 January 2019, the asteroid safely passed Template:Convert from Earth with a 3-sigma uncertainty region of about ±108 km.<ref name=jpl-close/> Between 1900 and 2195 the closest approach to Earth will occur on 15 January 2099 at a distance of roughly Template:Convert with an uncertainty region of about ±430 km.<ref name=jpl-close/>

On 30 January 2020, the asteroid safely passed Template:Convert from 2 Pallas.<ref name="NEODyS"/>

External links

• Simulation of the shrinking uncertainty region for 2019 Jan 28Template:Snd Peter Thomas
• Template:NeoDys
• Template:ESA-SSA
• Template:JPL small body