Author Topic: The nearest of NEOs  (Read 4297 times)

Offline gbaikie

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The nearest of NEOs
« on: 06/06/2015 09:17 pm »
2006 RH120
wiki:
"2006 RH120 is a tiny near-Earth asteroid with a diameter of about 2–3 meters that
ordinarily orbits the Sun but makes close approaches to the Earth–Moon system around every
twenty years,[6] when it can temporarily enter Earth orbit through temporary satellite capture
(TSC). Most recently it was in Earth orbit from September 2006 to June 2007"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_RH120
And:
Analysis has shown that solar-radiation pressure is perturbing its motion perceptibly. However,
Paul Chodas in JPL's Solar System Dynamics Group suspects that the perturbations are consistent
with expectations for a rocky object but not with old flight hardware. One hypothesis is that
the object is a piece of lunar rock ejected by an impact. On 18 February 2008, the object
was given a minor planet designation."

2006 RH120 tops the list of lowest delta-V NEO:
http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/~lance/delta_v/delta_v.rendezvous.html
1   99.99      2006 RH120   
From LEO DELTA-V: 3.820   
DELTA-V from lunar 0.637   from mars: 0.606 {I assume from lunar and Mars escape.]

2006 RH120 is currently .116 AU [stays within this distance for 5 month]. And getting as
near as .113 AU and over next 5 years not going further than .18 AU from Earth.
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2006+RH120&orb=1

In terms of km, .116 AU is 149597870700 meters times .116, which is 17.35 million km
Which light travels in 57.88 seconds. So about 1 minute.

The next 4 on list above are also less the 3.9 delta-V from LEO. They also wiki commentary
though first 3 are only in Indonesian wiki [with link be translated to English].
Or 2007 UN12:
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007+UN12+&orb=1
From http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/ and entering 2007 UN12.
2007 UN12 currently is fairly far from earth.
As is 2010 UE51, 2012 TF79, and with 2009 BD in next few years the closer of 4 at about .5 AU.

Of the 5 lowest delta-v, 2006 RH120 is nearest to Earth at moment and in 2006 was in Earth orbit.
If 2006 RH120 was blasted of the Moon, it seems that it would be a cheap way to get a lunar sample
from. Though possible it's some stage of a rocket or a space rock not from the Moon.   
« Last Edit: 06/06/2015 09:21 pm by gbaikie »

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