is a tiny asteroid and fast rotator, classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately 5 meters in diameter. It was first observed by the Mount Lemmon Survey in October 2010, when the asteroid crossed through the Earth-moon system and had a close encounter with Earth.
Orbit and classification
orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.7–3.2 AU once every 2 years and 9 months (1,011 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.64 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic.
The body's observation arc begins with its first observations by the Mount Lemmon Survey and only spans over a period of 3 days until 12 October 2010. It has been observed since then.
Close approach
made its closest approach at 10:51, 12 October 2010 UTC (6:51 EDT a.m.) at . It is one of the closest known approaches of an asteroid to Earth, at which time the object appeared at a magnitude of 14. It was first observed by of the Catalina Sky Surveys telescopes north of Tucson, Arizona on 9 October 2010.
It has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance of , which corresponds to 0.562 lunar distance. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 11 October 2010. The asteroid may have passed from Earth in October 1979, but the nominal orbit suggests it passed millions of kilometres from Earth in 1979.
Physical characteristics
is a stony asteroid, characterized as a Srv subtype.
Rotation period
In November 2010, a rotational light curve of was obtained from photometric observations, which showed that the asteroid is a fast rotator. Light curve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 0.0229317 hours (1 minute and 23 seconds) with a brightness amplitude of 0.92 magnitude (). A high amplitude typically indicates that the body has an irregular, elongated rather than spherical shape. This result supersedes a previously obtained lightcurve with a shorter period of 0.01167 hours ().
Diameter and albedo
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of based on an absolute magnitude of 28.9. NASA's press release gave an estimated diameter of .
See also List of asteroid close approaches to Earth, for other close approaches List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2010
Notes
References
External links Asteroid 2010 TD54's Orbit Around the Sun Small Asteroid to Pass Within Earth-Moon System Tuesday 10.11.10 The near-Earth asteroid 2010 TD54: The fastest rotating natural body known in the solar system? 29 Oct 2010 Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info )