* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Asteroid 2011 CQ1

Blobrana · L

Asteroid 2011 CQ1 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on February 4 and made a record close Earth approach 14 hours later on February 4 at 19:39 UT (14:39 EST). It passed to within 0.85 Earth radii (5480 km) of the Earth's surface over a region in the mid-Pacific. This object, only about one meter in diameter, is the closest non-impacting object in our asteroid catalogue to date. Prior to the Earth close approach, this object was in a so-called Apollo-class orbit that was mostly outside the Earth's orbit. Following the close approach, the Earth's gravitational attraction modified the object's orbit to an Aten-class orbit where the asteroid spends almost all of its time inside the Earth's orbit.
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Blobrana · L

Orbital elements:
2011 CQ1                                                 Earth MOID = 0.0001 AU
Epoch 2011 Feb. 8.0 TT = JDT 2455600.5                  MPC
M 220.57522              (2000.0)            P               Q
n   1.28941730     Peri.  335.20297     +0.35329796     +0.93326538
a   0.8360015      Node   315.40928     -0.84218592     +0.28714187
e   0.2075326      Incl.    5.29435     -0.40731245     +0.21578990
P   0.76           H   32.1           G   0.15           U   7

MPEC 2011 - C14

Blobrana · L

2011 CQ1
Earth Impact Risk Summary

Torino Scale (maximum)	0
Palermo Scale (maximum)	-9.94
Palermo Scale (cumulative)	-9.15
Impact Probability (cumulative)	3.0e-06
Number of Potential Impacts	19

V_impact	12.25 km/s
V_infinity	5.09 km/s
H	32.1
Diameter	0.001 km
Mass	2.7e+03 kg
Energy	4.9e-05 MT
all above are mean values weighted by impact probability

Analysis based on
14 observations spanning .35243 days
(2011-Feb-04.23507 to 2011-Feb-04.5875)

Blobrana · L

A small asteroid swooped within 7,366 miles of Earth on Feb. 4 - today - at 2:40 p.m. EST [19:40 UT].
The object, called 2011 CQ1, was discovered earlier today by astronomer Richard Kowalski using a 0.68-meter telescope near Mount Bigelow outside of Tuscon, Arizona as part of the Catalina Sky Surveys routine scanning of the skies for small objects that come close to Earth.
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Blobrana · L

The 2 - 4 metre wide asteroid 2011 CQ1 will make a close pass (0.0545 lunar distances, 0.00014 AU), travelling at 9.69 km/second, to the Earth-Moon system on the 4th February, 2011 @ 19:39 UT ±00:01.

The Lunar Distance (LD), the distance between Earth and the Moon, equals 384,401 km, (or 0.00256 AU).

Blobrana · L

Orbital elements:
2011 CQ1                                                 Earth MOID = 0.0001 AU
Epoch 2011 Jan. 19.0 TT = JDT 2455580.5                 MPC
M 305.62281              (2000.0)            P               Q
n   0.81553609     Peri.   59.01393     -0.96862440     +0.24815976
a   1.1345943      Node   135.35074     -0.23408997     -0.89268336
e   0.2013026      Incl.    1.10453     -0.08347855     -0.37620893
P   1.21           H   32.0           G   0.15
From 11 observations 2011 Feb. 4.

MPEC 2011 - C12