* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: 2006 HZ51

Blobrana · L

The asteroid, 2006 HZ51, is the biggest object currently on NASA-JPL's list of objects that might strike the Earth someday, with an estimated diameter of 782 meters . It is the object that has the nearest-term possible Earth-impact date of anything on the list: just over two years away, on the first day of summer (June 21) 2008.
An object that big would be capable of devastating a continent, and wreaking havoc with the Earth's climate for years.

The odds of impact currently stand at just one in six million, with these odds predicted to diminish with additional observations.
2006 HZ51 was discovered on 27 April 2006, and has an estimated Mass of 6.5^11 kg.

Currently, analysis based on 13 observations spanning 1.1145 days, over the period of 2006-Apr-27.16042 to 2006-Apr-28.27491, has given the asteroid a Torino Scale (maximum) of 0.

Orbital elements:

2006 HZ51                                                Earth MOID = 0.0608 AU
Epoch 2006 Apr. 15.0 TT = JDT 2453840.5                 MPC
M 349.15852              (2000.0)            P               Q
n   0.13724195     Peri.  182.13937     -0.20976829     +0.95496724
a   3.7223007      Node    75.80213     -0.89382428     -0.10029871
e   0.7111243      Incl.   12.50099     -0.39632740     -0.27924495
P   7.18           H   18.6           G   0.15

Ephemeris:

2006 HZ51                a,e,i = 3.72, 0.71, 13                  q = 1.0753
Date    TT    R. A. (2000) Decl.     Delta      r     Elong.  Phase     V
2006 04 25    11 06.44   +33 02.9    0.649    1.420   116.6    39.3    20.0
2006 05 05    11 02.08   +31 02.5    0.622    1.341   108.3    45.6    19.9
2006 05 15    11 03.37   +28 01.3    0.595    1.267   101.1    51.5    19.9
2006 05 25    11 10.12   +24 00.1    0.563    1.202    95.2    57.0    19.8
2006 06 04    11 21.99   +18 53.2    0.528    1.148    90.6    62.1    19.7
2006 06 14    11 38.69   +12 30.2    0.490    1.107    87.4    66.4    19.6
2006 06 24    12 00.28   +04 36.5    0.451    1.083    86.0    69.5    19.5
2006 07 04    12 27.69   -04 59.6    0.418    1.075    86.5    70.7    19.3
2006 07 14    13 02.71   -16 08.2    0.395    1.086    89.3    69.3    19.2
2006 07 24    13 48.17   -27 52.3    0.391    1.114    94.1    65.4    19.1
2006 08 03    14 46.91   -38 21.0    0.410    1.158    99.9    59.7    19.1
2006 08 13    15 57.86   -45 35.9    0.453    1.215   105.4    53.5    19.3
2006 08 23    17 12.50   -48 48.5    0.519    1.282   109.5    48.1    19.5
2006 09 02    18 19.53   -48 42.7    0.606    1.356   111.8    43.7    19.9
2006 09 12    19 13.61   -46 39.5    0.711    1.437   112.4    40.3    20.2
2006 09 22    19 55.83   -43 42.7    0.832    1.522   111.6    37.8    20.6
2006 10 02    20 29.42   -40 27.8    0.968    1.609   109.6    35.9    21.0
2006 10 12    20 57.11   -37 11.9    1.117    1.698   106.6    34.3    21.4
2006 10 22    21 20.83   -34 02.0    1.279    1.788   102.9    32.9    21.8

-- Edited by Blobrana at 13:05, 2006-05-03