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2000 SG344

Small risk–listed near-Earth asteroid

Field	Value
minorplanet	yes
name
background	#FFC2E0
image	Asteroid_2000_SG344.gif
caption	** seen on 29 September 2000, as a dim streak in the center of the image, moving against the background field of stars
discovery_ref
discoverer	D. J. Tholen
R. J. Whiteley
discovery_site	Mauna Kea Obs.—UH88
discovered	29 September 2000
(first observation only)
mp_category	NEOAten
orbit_ref
epoch	2025-Nov-21 (JD 2461000.5)
observation_arc	507 days (1.39 yr)
uncertainty	3
aphelion	1.0428 AU
perihelion	0.91203 AU
semimajor	0.97740 AU
eccentricity	0.06688
period	0.97 yr (352.94 d)
inclination	0.113110°
asc_node	191.77°
mean_motion	1.0200°/day
mean_anomaly	275.66°
arg_peri	275.56°
moid	0.0009 AU
mean_diameter	(assumed)
15–70 meters
mass	7.1 kg (assumed)
abs_magnitude	24.7

R. J. Whiteley (first observation only) 15–70 meters

**** is a small Aten asteroid first observed in 2000. It is assumed to have a diameter of approximately 37 m – or roughly twice that of the Chelyabinsk meteor – and an assumed mass of 7.1 kg (71,000 tonnes), but the size is only known within about a factor 2. , it is the largest object known to have a better than 1/1000 chance (0.1%) of impacting Earth and has the fifth highest cumulative Palermo scale rating at −2.77. The next good chance to observe the object will be in May 2028 when it passes 0.02 AU from Earth.

Because of its very Earth-like orbit and because it would have been near the Earth in 1971 (coinciding with the Apollo program), there was speculation that might not be an asteroid but a man-made object such as an S-IVB booster stage from a Saturn V rocket which would make it about 15 meters in diameter and much less massive. (cf. J002E3, the S-IVB booster of Apollo 12 which was mistaken for an asteroid.)

Date & time	Nominal distance	uncertainty
region
([3-sigma](3-sigma))
2028-May-07 03:32 ± 4 minutes		± km
2030-Sep-22 22:36 ± 10 hours		± km

Possible impacts with Earth

Until December 2004, it was considered to have the highest (though still very low) likelihood of any near-Earth object to impact Earth in the next 100 years. It is ranked a zero on the Torino scale of impact risk because of its small size (the scale is 0–10) and is listed on Sentry Risk Table. It was briefly surpassed in December 2004 by 99942 Apophis (which at the time was known only by its provisional designation ). Smaller asteroids such as and have a greater chance of impacting Earth.

Based on 31 observations of made from May 1999 to October 2000, there is about a 1 in 360 chance that it will collide with Earth between 2069 and 2121. The greatest chance of impact is on 16 September 2071 with a 1 in 1000 chance of impact. Assuming the object is a rocky asteroid and that it reaches Earth's surface without exploding in the atmosphere, the impact energy released would be an estimated 1.0 megatons of TNT, comparable to the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk events, which could create an impact crater approximately 100 ft wide.

Date	Impact
probability
(1 in)	JPL Horizons
nominal geocentric
distance (AU)	NEODyS
nominal geocentric
distance (AU)	uncertainty
region
([3-sigma](3-sigma))
2069-09-18	5 million	0.07 AU	0.08 AU	± 32 million km
2070-09-17	4300	0.18 AU	0.14 AU	± 275 million km
2071-09-10	7100	0.43 AU	0.35 AU	± 462 million km
2071-09-16	1000	0.44 AU	0.36 AU	± 475 million km

Proposed NASA mission

In 2008, NASA considered this asteroid as a possible target for a crewed mission (Artemis 2) using the Orion spacecraft, prior to a projected 2030 push to Mars. Those plans were since abandoned. will be observable in May 2028 at an apparent magnitude of 19.

References

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218125702/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/nhats |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 February 2013

|url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529175100/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/ |archivedate=29 May 2013 }}

|url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920021145/https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%272000+SG344%27&START_TIME=%272069-09-18%2011:46%27&STOP_TIME=%272069-09-19%27&STEP_SIZE=%272%20days%27&QUANTITIES=%2720,39%27 |archive-date=2022-09-20 |url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209154241/https://newton.spacedys.com/neodys/index.php?pc=1.1.3.1&n=2000SG344&oc=500&y0=2069&m0=09&d0=18&h0=0&mi0=0&y1=2069&m1=09&d1=19&h1=0&mi1=0&ti=1.0&tiu=days |archive-date=2020-12-09 |url-status=live

References

Into the Beyond: A Crewed Mission to a Near-Earth Object – [http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/project/neo/pdf/neo_crewed_mission.pdf text] [http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/project/neo/pdf/IAC-07-slides.pdf slides]
Sample, Ian. (7 May 2008). "Closer encounter: Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide asteroid travelling at 28,000mph". [[The Guardian]].

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-the-mauna-kea-observatories potential-impact-events-caused-by-near-earth-objects astronomical-objects-discovered-in-2000

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