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1994 WR12

Near-Earth asteroid

Field	Value
minorplanet	yes
name
background	#FFC2E0
discovery_ref
discoverer	C. S. Shoemaker
discovery_site	Palomar Obs.
discovered	28 November 1994
mpc_name
mp_category	NEOAten
orbit_ref
epoch	2025-Nov-21 (JD 2461000.5)
uncertainty	0
observation_arc	31.06 yr (11,345 d)
aphelion	1.0576 AU
perihelion	0.4560 AU
semimajor	0.7568 AU
eccentricity	0.39748
period	240.5 days (0.658 yr)
mean_anomaly	152.77°
mean_motion	/ day
inclination	6.8465°
asc_node	62.521°
arg_peri	206.04°
moid	0.0015 AU
mean_diameter	(est.)
92 – 210 m (CNEOS)
mass	(est.)
abs_magnitude	22.4

92 – 210 m (CNEOS)

**** is an asteroid and near-Earth object approximately 130 m 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 on 26 November 1994, it was discovered two nights later by American astronomer Carolyn S. Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory on 28 November 1994. The asteroid then went unobserved from 1994 until it was recovered by Mauna Kea in March 2016. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 2 April 2016.

Date	JPL SBDB
nominal geocentric
distance	uncertainty
region
([3-sigma](3-sigma))
2021-11-29		± 34 km
2046-11-25		± 4133 km
2190-11-23		± 815 million km

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.

It has an Earth minimum orbital intersection distance of 0.0018 AU, which translates into 0.7 lunar distances. On 25 November 2046, it will pass from Earth with an uncertainty of ±4133 km. While listed on the Sentry Risk Table the range for the 2046 close approach distance varied from 0.001 AU to 0.039 AU from Earth.

While listed on the Sentry Risk Table, virtual clones of the asteroid that fit the uncertainty in the known trajectory showed 116 potential impacts between 2054 and 2109. 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 in March 2016, which extended the observation arc from 34 days to 21 years.

It is estimated that an impact would produce the equivalent of 77 megatons of TNT, roughly 1.5 times that of most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated (Tsar Bomba).

It has too a unique characteristic: it's complanar with Mercury, it can to be a fragment thrown away by an asteroid impact on Mercury, it's very little MOID with the Earth can produce a meteor shower on Earth and if the meteoroids were large enough even Mercurian meteorites.

References

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130073410/http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1994WR12;cad=1 |archive-date=2017-11-30 |url-status=live |access-date = 29 November 2021}}

|access-date = 30 June 2020}}

|access-date = 2011-10-17}} (J94W12R)

|url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130529175100/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/ |archive-date = 2013-05-29

|url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160326083250/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/1994wr12.html |archive-date = 26 March 2016

|access-date = 2021-11-29

(last observation: 1994-12-31; arc: 35 days; Uncertainty: 8)

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119145557/https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%271994+WR12%27&START_TIME=%272021-Nov-29+06%3A03%27&STOP_TIME=%272021-Nov-30%27&STEP_SIZE=%271+day%27&QUANTITIES=%2720%2C39%27 |archive-date=2021-11-19 |url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120140319/https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%271994+WR12%27&START_TIME=%272190-Nov-24+06%3A35%27&STOP_TIME=%272190-Nov-25%27&STEP_SIZE=%271+day%27&QUANTITIES=%2720%2C39%27 |archive-date=2021-11-20 |url-status=live

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

aten-asteroids minor-planet-object-articles-(unnumbered) discoveries-by-carolyn-s.-shoemaker near-earth-objects-removed-from-the-sentry-risk-table near-earth-objects-in-2021 astronomical-objects-discovered-in-1994

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