Discovery date January 08, 2002 Observation arc 1805 days (4.94 yr) Inclination 1.500522° Discovery site Socorro | Minor planet category amor Discovered 8 January 2002 Spectral type C-type asteroid Asteroid group Amor asteroid | |
Discovered by Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Team Aphelion 2.7006668 AU (404.01400 Gm) Perihelion 1.03349733 AU (154.609000 Gm) Discoverer Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research Similar Solar System, (29075) 1950 DA, 433 Eros, Jupiter trojan, 99942 Apophis | ||
2002 AT4 (also written 2002 AT4) is an as yet unnamed and un-numbered near-Earth asteroid. It is approximately 160–370 metres in diameter. It has an eccentric orbit that brings it sometimes close to Earth's orbit, and sometimes halfway between Mars and Jupiter. It is a D-type asteroid which means that it may be reddish in colour, and it orbits amongst the amor family of asteroids.
Due to its relatively low transfer cost of ~5.5 km/s, 2002 AT4 was under consideration by the European Space Agency as a candidate target for the Don Quijote mission to study the effects of impacting a spacecraft into an asteroid; however, it is no longer under consideration.[1]
References
2002 AT4 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA