Discovery date 12 January 2008 Minor planet category Apollo NEO,
PHA Perihelion 0.9352 AU (q) Absolute magnitude 19.9 Discoverer Mount Lemmon Survey | MPC designation 2008 AO112
2013 EM20 Aphelion 1.808 AU (Q) Discovered 12 January 2008 Asteroid group Apollo asteroid | |
Discovered by Mt. Lemmon Survey (G96) | ||
2008 AO112 (also written 2008 AO112) is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid and potentially hazardous object. It was discovered on 12 January 2008 by the Mount Lemmon Survey at an apparent magnitude of 21 using a 1.5-meter (59 in) reflecting telescope. The asteroid was quickly lost and had an estimated diameter of 310 meters (1,020 ft). On 25 June 2009, with an observation arc of only 1 day in January 2008, the asteroid had a 1 in 4 million chance of impacting Earth on that very day. The virtual impactor had not been eliminated from the Sentry Risk Table by the day of the potential impact.
The asteroid was recovered on 5 March 2013 as 2013 EM20. Precovery images from 7 April 1997 at Kitt Peak National Observatory were located. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 30 March 2013. It is now known that on 25 June 2009 the asteroid was 1.45AU from Earth.