(163249) 2002 GT
Apollo asteroid
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(163249) 2002 GT is an Apollo asteroid with an absolute magnitude of 18.26.[1] It is a potentially hazardous asteroid as its orbit crosses that of Earth.[3]
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Spacewatch |
| Discovery site | Kitt Peak National Obs. |
| Discovery date | 3 April 2002 |
| Designations | |
| (163249) 2002 GT | |
| NEO · PHA · Apollo[1] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 5114 days (14.00 yr) |
| Aphelion | 1.7945 AU (268.45 Gm) |
| Perihelion | 0.89422 AU (133.773 Gm) |
| 1.3444 AU (201.12 Gm) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.33483 |
| 1.56 yr (569.33 d) | |
| 196.65° | |
| 0° 37m 56.352s / day (n) | |
| Inclination | 6.9681° |
| 201.76° | |
| 135.09° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.0161099 AU (2.41001 Gm) |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 350-500 m[2] | |
| 3.7663 h (0.15693 d) | |
| 18.4[1] | |
Description
In 2011, NASA considered sending the unmanned spacecraft Deep Impact toward the asteroid with the aim of performing a flyby[3] in 2020. It was uncertain whether Deep Impact carried sufficient fuel for this operation.[3]
On 24 November 2011 and 4 October 2012, the space probe's thrusters were fired briefly for two trajectory correction maneuvers that targeted Deep Impact for an encounter with 2002 GT in 2020, possibly within a distance of about 200 kilometers. However, funding for the flyby mission was not guaranteed.[4] In June 2013 the asteroid was observed in radar by the Arecibo Observatory.[5]
However, on 8 August 2013 NASA lost communication with the spacecraft, and on 20 September 2013, NASA abandoned further attempts to contact the craft.[6] According to A'Hearn,[7] the most probable reason of software malfunction was a Y2K-like problem (at 11 August 2013 0:38:49 it was 232 deciseconds from 1 January 2000[8]).