Discovered by LINEAR MPC designation 1998 XX2 Discovered 8 December 1998 Argument of perihelion 153.00166° Discovery site Socorro | Discovery date 8 December 1998 Alternative names MPO 251988,MPO 315368 Observation arc 5832 days (15.97 yr) Inclination 6.9722566° Mean anomaly 151.54037° | |
Discoverer | ||
(415713) 1998 XX2 is a small asteroid that is a Near-Earth object, a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), and an Aten asteroid. This asteroid was discovered December 8, 1998, by Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR), and was found to have frequent approaches to the Earth, Venus, and Mercury.
Orbit
The orbit of (415713) 1998 XX2 is well-established, and appears on the list of PHA close approaches to Earth, with the next approach at a distance of 0.020237 AU (3,027,400 km; 1,881,100 mi) on November 28, 2028. During the years 1900–2200, close approaches are 0.017 AU (2,500,000 km; 1,600,000 mi) of the Earth (on Nov 30, 1991), as close as 0.035 AU (5,200,000 km; 3,300,000 mi) of Venus (on Jan 28, 1902 and April 8, 2039), and as close as 0.029 AU (4,300,000 km; 2,700,000 mi) of Mercury on 12 occasions. For comparison, the distance to the Moon is about 0.0026 AU (384,400 km).
From 1993 to 1998, 1993 DA was the asteroid with the lowest known aphelion at 1.023 AU, and was thus the closest thing to an Apohele asteroid known at the time. When (33342) 1998 WT24 was discovered November 25, 1998, it was found to have a slightly smaller aphelion (1.019 AU) than 1993 DA, so (33342) 1998 WT24 took the title. However, (33342) 1998 WT24 lost its smallest aphelion title almost immediately when (415713) 1998 XX2 (aphelion of 1.014 AU) was discovered only a few weeks later on December 8, 1998.
The Jupiter Tisserand invariant, used to distinguish different kinds of orbits, is 7.7.