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A Search for the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 1998 OX4: Implications for a Possible Close Encounter in 2014

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

James D. Biggs  and
Matthew Slivkoff
James D. Biggs
Affiliation:
Perth Observatory, 337 Walnut Rd, Bickley 6076, Western Australia; [email protected]
Matthew Slivkoff
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U 1987, Perth 6845, Western Australia
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Abstract

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Small bodies of 100–500 m diameter can cause significant damage on impact with the Earth. Such objects are difficult to detect and track because they are intrinsically faint over most of their orbit. We failed to detect one such lost and potentially hazardous minor planet, 1998 OX4, during two observing sessions in 2001, January. The positions searched were those calculated by Milani et al. (2000) with their Virtual Impactors method. Using some simple assumptions we estimate the probability that we failed to detect 1998 OX4 due to it being obscured by objects in the field of our observations is <2 × 10−7. If the assumptions in the Virtual Impactor model are valid we conclude that an impact with 1998 OX4 is unlikely in 2014, January. Furthermore, given the relatively large area we searched it is also unlikely that this minor planet will have a very close encounter with Earth in 2014.

Keywords

asteroids: impactsorbit1998 OX4
Type
Research Article
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , 2002 , pp. 422 - 424
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2002

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