NEAT January 2002 Interesting Objects

Thus far in January we discovered 9 NEAs with NEAT: 4 Amors including 1>1km, and 5 Apollos including 3 PHAs, and 2 >1km.

The NEA 2001 YB5 discovered with NEAT on 26 December 2001 sped within ~2 lunar distances of the Earth on 7 January 2002. Two movies of this object taken at other observatories were kindly provided, 2001YB5-movie1 ( by Daniel Scarpa & Antonio Más, Observatorio Kappa Crucis MPC 913, Montevideo, Uruguay) and 2001YB5-movie2 (by John E. Rogers, Camarillo Observatory, Camarillo, CA).
Designat. NEAT name & Image Disc. with NEAT/ Date Vel. (deg/day) Mag. Size in km (miles) Orbit Visual. Comment*
2002 AP3 Q3J8D3B Palomar 6 Jan 0.6 20 0.35 (0.2) orbit Apollo-PHA
2002 AA2 Q3WVEF MSSS 7 Jan 4.9 18 0.4 (0.25) orbit Amor
2002 AD2 Q407SG MSSS 7 Jan 3.0 19 0.4 (0.25) orbit Amor
2001 AE2 Q41JGZ MSSS 7 Jan 0.5 19 - - Known NEA
2001 XB48 Q49L3WC Palomar 8 Jan 0.3 19 - - Not NEA
2002 AR5 Q4BNKYC Palomar 8 Jan 0.5 19 - - Not NEA
2002 AS5 Q4BQU1A Palomar 8 Jan 0.3 20 - - Not NEA
2002 AQ3 Q4BU1NA Palomar 8 Jan 0.7 19

2.0 (1.2)

orbit

 Amor-large
2001 YX11 Q5RC1EB Palomar 12 Jan 1.1 19 - - Amor-not credited to NEAT
2002 AF29 Q64GVB MSSS 13 Jan 0.7 20 0.7 (0.4) orbit Amor
2002 AG29 Q658XZA Palomar 13 Jan 0.6 18 1.0 (0.6) orbit Apollo-large
2002 AL31 Q6FEQ1A Palomar 14 Jan 2.2 19 0.035 (0.02) orbit Apollo
- Q6G1NQB Palomar 14 Jan 0.6 20 - - Lost or not real
2002 AX31 Q6IB13C Palomar 14 Jan 0.2 20 - - Not NEA
2002 AJ129 Q6WSSL MSSS 15 Jan 2.0 20 0.9 (0.5) orbit Apollo-PHA with a highly eccentric orbit that crosses Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury
2002 BK25 QAGTG3A Palomar 25 Jan 0.1 20 1.5 (0.9) orbit Apollo-Large PHA with high eccentricity

*Amors, Apollos, and Atens are the three categories of Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). Amor asteroids approach the Earth's orbit from the outside, Apollo asteroids cross the Earth's orbit, and Aten asteroids approach the Earth's orbit from the inside. Potentially Hazardous asteroids (PHAs) are larger than ~200 m (0.1 mile) and approach close enough to present a potential hazard but not a current hazard.