Near Earth Asteroid 2003 SQ222

JackHiggins · Post #1by **JackHiggins** » 27.10.2003, 15:14

Hey all

On September 27th, a small asteroid passed only 88,400km from the earth. It has been given the designation 2003 SQ222, and it was the closest ever detected pass by an asteroid past the Earth.

I've made an xyz for it, and you can download it from the Other xyz's and ssc's page on my site http://homepage.eircom.net/~jackcelestia/

Here's what it looked like at the time of closest approach:

Here's what it looked like from a top-down view:

And here's how much it's orbit was changed by the encounter!

(Image shows it as it was before the change)

Enjoy!

ElPelado · Post #2by **ElPelado** » 27.10.2003, 15:19

In the last picture, its orbit crosses Venus orbit when seeing for up, when seeing from the side, it also crosses it?

JackHiggins · Post #3by **JackHiggins** » 27.10.2003, 15:41

Nope- sorry...!!

The orbit is slightly inclined, so it just goes "under" Venus' orbit, and it also misses Mars!

Although with another few earth flybys it could well smack into one of those sometime in the future...! It's only like 5m radius though so it wouldn't do any damage!

Darkmiss · Post #4by **Darkmiss** » 27.10.2003, 22:25

Thank yo very much Jack
I'm adding it now.

fsgregs · Post #5by **fsgregs** » 31.10.2003, 03:51

Thanks Jack. It's great.

Frank