2022 UQ1

is a minor-planet provisional designation mistakenly given to the Lucy mission's Centaur upper-stage booster during its Earth gravity-assist flyby in October 2022. The object passed about above the surface of Earth during its closest approach on 16 October 2022.

History Since approached Earth from the direction of the Sun, it was not discovered until after its closest approach. On 18 October 2022, the object was discovered by one of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescopes in Rio Hurtado, Chile, which reported it to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) as a near-Earth object candidate.

On 19 October 2022, three other observatories produced follow-up observations and confirmed the object was on a near-Earth orbit, prompting the MPC to announce it as a new near-Earth object with the designation .

On 20 October 2022, the object was later identified by Bill Gray and Davide Farnocchia as the Lucy mission's Centaur upper stage booster, resulting in the MPC deleting from its database.

Orbit +Lucy upper-stage booster's distance from the center of Earth on 16 October 2022 Date ESAnominal geocentricdistance (AU) uncertaintyregion(1-sigma)2022-10-16 06:54 ± 00:17 ± reached its perihelion on 27 July 2022, at a distance of 0.84 AU, between the orbits of Venus and Earth. The Earth encounter in October reduced the period of its heliocentric orbit from 1 year to about 241.5 days and reduced its perihelion to 0.52 AU, placing it between the orbits of Mercury and Venus.

+Orbital Elements for October and November 2022(before and after Earth encounter) Parameter Epoch Period(p) Aphelion(Q) Perihelion(q) Semi-majoraxis(a) Inclination(i) Eccentricity(e) Units (days)AU(°) 2022-Oct-01 365.72 1.1630 0.83870 1.0008 0.1271° 0.16201 2022-Nov-01 241.23 0.9977 0.51906 0.7584 1.4283° 0.31557

2022 UQ1

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