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List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2016

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Reference excerpt

Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2016.

Timeline of known close approaches less than one Lunar distance from Earth in 2016 A list of known near-Earth asteroid close approaches less than 1 lunar distance (0.0025696 AU (384,410 km; 238,860 mi)) from Earth in 2016, based on the close approach database of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). For reference, the radius of Earth is approximately 0.0000426 AU (6,370 km; 3,960 mi) or 0.0166 Lunar distances.The orbit of geosynchronous satellites, however, is 0.000282 AU (42,200 km; 26,200 mi) or 0.110 Lunar distances. This year, 6 (possibly 7) asteroids traveled nearer than this, most notably 2016 DY30, which approached a mere 1.25 Earth radii (8000 km) from the surface. The CNEOS database of close approaches lists some close approaches a full orbit or more before the discovery of the object, derived by orbit calculation. The list below only includes close approaches that are evidenced by observations, thus the pre-discovery close approaches would only be included if the object was found by precovery, but there was no such close approach in 2016. This list and relevant databases do not consider impacts as close approaches, thus this list does not include any of the 32 objects that collided with Earth's atmosphere in 2016, none of which were discovered in advance, but were observed visually or recorded by sensors designed to detect detonation of nuclear devices. Rows highlighted red indicate objects which were not discovered until after closest approach Rows highlighted yellow indicate objects discovered less than 24 hours before closest approach Rows highlighted green indicate objects discovered more than one week before closest approach Rows highlighted turquoise indicate objects discovered more than 7 weeks before closest approach Rows highlighted blue indicate objects discovered more than one year before closest approach(i.e. objects successfully cataloged on a previous orbit, rather than being detected during final approach)

In addition to the confirmed asteroids on the above list, which feature in the CNEOS close approach database, there have been well-observed unconfirmed or confirmed but poorly observed objects with a 50% or greater chance of passing within 1 LD of the Earth, which are listed separately below.

Warning times by size This sub-section visualizes the warning times of the close approaches listed in the table of confirmed close approaches, depending on the size of the asteroid. The sizes of the charts show the relative sizes of the asteroids to scale. For comparison, the approximate size of a person is also shown. This is based the absolute magnitude of each asteroid, an approximate measure of size based on brightness. Absolute magnitude H ≥ 30 (smallest)

(size of a person for comparison)

Absolute magnitude 30 > H ≥ 29

Absolute magnitude 29 > H ≥ 28

Absolute magnitude 28 > H ≥ 27

Absolute magnitude 27 > H ≥ 26

Absolute magnitude 26 > H ≥ 25

Absolute magnitude 25 > H (largest) None

Notes

Timeline of close approaches less than one Lunar distance from the Moon in 2016 The number of asteroids listed here are significantly less than those of asteroids that approach Earth for several reasons. Asteroids that approach Earth not only move faster, but are brighter and are easier to detect with modern surveys because:

Asteroids that come closer to Earth are a higher priority to confirm, and only confirmed asteroids are listed with a lunocentric approach distance. Those that closely approach the Moon are frequently lost in its glare, making them harder to confirm. They are easier to discover during the new Moon, when the Moon is too close to the Sun to detect asteroids while they are near the Moon. These factors severely limit the amount of Moon-approaching asteroids, to a level many times lower than the asteroids detected passing as close to Earth.

Notes

Additional examples An example list of near-Earth asteroids that passed more than 1 lunar distance (384,400 km or 0.00256 AU) from Earth in 2016.

2015 YC2 (~102 meters in diameter) passed 4.92 Lunar distances (1.9 million km) from Earth on 15 January 2016. XBBE860 (~8 meters in diameter) passed 1.13 lunar distances (435,000 km) from Earth on 1 February 2016. P10tc2W (~10 meters in diameter) passed 1.02 lunar distances (391,000 km) from Earth on 6 March 2016 2013 TX68 (~30 meters in diameter) may have passed as close as 0.07 lunar distances (30,000 km) from Earth around 5–6 March 2016, but the best fitting orbital solution suggests that it passed roughly 11 lunar distances (4 million km) from Earth around 8 March 2016. 2013 TX68 has not been observed since 2013 and was not recovered during the 2016 passage. 252P/LINEAR (~900 meters in diameter) passed 13.9 lunar distances (5.3 million km) from Earth on 21 March 2016 Comet P/2016 BA14 (~1000 meters in diameter) passed 9.2 lunar distances (3.5 million km) from Earth on 22 March 2016. 2014 JG55 (~6 meters in diameter) has a minimum estimated approach on May 8, 2016 of 0.82 lunar distances (315,000 km) from Earth. However the best fit calculates an approach of 7.6 lunar distances (2.9 million km) from Earth. 2009 DL46 (~200 meters in diameter) passed 6.2 lunar distances (2.4 million km) from Earth on May 24, 2016. 2016 FE13 (~23 meters in diameter) passed 27.98 lunar distances (10.7 million km) from Earth on March 26, 2016 2016 PQ (~30 meters in diameter) passed 9.80 lunar distances (3.8 million km) from Earth on August 7, 2016. 2016 SW3 (~8 meters in diameter) passed between 1.0012 and 1.0029 lunar distances (385,000 km) from Earth on September 26, 2016. 2016 UQ36 (~11 meters in diameter) passed 1.033 lunar distances (397,000 km) from Earth on October 24, 2016 2017 AG5 (~108 meters in diameter) passed 4.6 Lunar distances (1.75 million km) from Earth on 30 December 2016

Other objects XF38FAC (Satellite 2015-007B) with an observation arc of only 17 minutes was estimated to have a chance of impacting Earth at 16:51 on 20 March 2016, but turned out to be the SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage that sent Deep Space Climate Observatory out to L1.

See also List of asteroid close approaches to Earth List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2015 List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2017

References

Worked examples

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Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2016 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

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In the classroom: List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2016 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of asteroids, Near-Earth asteroids, Near-Earth objects in 2016, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
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Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2016. Timeline of known close approaches less than one Lunar distance from Earth in 2016 A list of known near-Earth asteroid close approaches less than 1 lunar distance (0.0025696 AU (384,410 km; 238,860 mi)) from Earth in 2016, based on th…

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