Asteroid 2024 UQ2, a NEO of the Apollo group, will approach the Earth on 30th of October 2024. This asteroid falls in the Apollo group, which is composed of Near Earth Asteroids with cross over orbits, thus capturing the attention of astronomers. The object has a nominal close approach distance of about 1.67 million kilometres or roughly 4.3 times the distance to the Moon, and the asteroid will be closely observed to better determine its path.
Asteroid 2024 UQ2 has an eccentricity of 0.61 meaning that it is an eccentric asteroid and at some point of its orbit it approaches the Sun and Earth. Its orbital semi-major axis is 1.97 AU, but perihelion – the distance at which the asteroid is nearest to the Sun – is only 0.76 AU, placing the asteroid inside Venus’ orbit. This orbit places it close to Earth’s orbit in the solar system, and as such it is targeted not only for observation but also for study. It also has an inclination of 0.54 degrees to the ecliptic which keeps it just out of the plane of Earth’s orbit.
Close Approach on October 30
The asteroid will make its closest approach at 13:23 TDB (Terrestrial Dynamical Time) on October 30, 2024. Distances calculated put the NEO at a nominal approach of 1,665,377 km to the Earth. Depending on the range of uncertainty of this approach distance could be any value between 1,652,969 and 1,677,784 kilometres. It has a relative velocity of 14.86 km/s, this means that it will only be visible to astronomers for a short time as it moves away from the Earth.
Observations and Monitoring Data
Observations for 2024 UQ2 were obtained with a 1-day observing arc, from October 24 to October 25, 2024. In total 19 observations were used to define the preliminary orbital parameters by the researchers. However, the condition code 8 means that the asteroid’s orbit is rather unpredictable today, but it can change when new data are obtained. It is therefore considered a close-approach object with Earth MOID of 0.00266 AU, however there is no possibility of impact in this case.
Researchers at the NASA JPL will keep observing 2024 UQ2, adding new information to its motion and orbiting to provide better predictions of its future positions and how close it will approach the Earth.
