(89959) 2002 NT7
Encyclopedia
is a near-Earth object
Near-Earth object
A near-Earth object is a Solar System object whose orbit brings it into close proximity with the Earth. All NEOs have a perihelion distance less than 1.3 AU. They include a few thousand near-Earth asteroids , near-Earth comets, a number of solar-orbiting spacecraft, and meteoroids large enough to...

 (NEO) with a diameter of 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) that became the first object observed by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's NEO program to be assigned a positive rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale
Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale
The Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale is a logarithmic scale used by astronomers to rate the potential hazard of impact of a near-earth object . It combines two types of data—probability of impact, and estimated kinetic yield—into a single "hazard" value...

, for a potential impact on February 1, 2019. Despite inflammatory press reports, the object has a "low probability" of impact, approximately one in a million.

Further observations of the object have since re-rated the threat lower. As of July 25, 2002, the hazard rating on the Palermo scale had been lowered to -0.25. However, the discovery of an object with an initial Palermo hazard rating of 0.06 was a significant event in the history of the NEO observation program.

was removed from the Sentry Risk Table
Sentry (monitoring system)
Sentry is a highly automated collision monitoring system that continually scans the most current asteroid catalog for possibilities of future impact with Earth over the next 100 years...

 on August 1, 2002.

It is now known that on 2019-Jan-13 the asteroid will safely pass 0.4078 AU from the Earth.

On 2020-Jan-30 the asteroid will pass 0.02718 AU from 2 Pallas
2 Pallas
Pallas, formally designated 2 Pallas, is the second asteroid to have been discovered , and one of the largest. It is estimated to constitute 7% of the mass of the asteroid belt, and its diameter of 530–565 km is comparable to, or slightly larger than, that of 4 Vesta. It is however 20%...

.

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