2023 DZ2
2023 DZ2 is an asteroid roughly 70 meters in diameter, classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group, and originally a Virtual Impactor (VI). It was first observed on 27 February 2023, when it was 0.11 AU (16 million km) from Earth, with the Isaac Newton Telescope by Ovidiu Vaduvescu, Freya Barwell, and Kiran Jhass (ING and University of Sheffield student support astronomers) within the EURONEAR project. It passed 174,644 ± 0.9 km (108,518.75 ± 0.56 mi) of Earth on March 25, 2023. This is a little less than half the distance to the Moon. This was the largest asteroid to approach this close since 2019 OK. On March 21, 2023 with a 66-day observation arc, it was removed from the Sentry Risk Table. Due to the highly precise radar observations on 25 March 2023 we know that the 2004 Earth approach was closer than the 2023 approach.
| Date & time | Nominal distance | uncertainty region (3-sigma) |
|---|---|---|
| 2004-Apr-18 23:57 ± 22 minutes | 129737 km | ± 3000 km |
| 2023-Mar-25 19:49 | 174644 km | ± 0.9 km |
| 2026-Apr-04 02:01 ± 2 minutes | 1012259 km | ± 120 km |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | EURONEAR |
| Discovery site | Roque de los Muchachos Observatory |
| Discovery date | 27 February 2023 |
| Designations | |
MPC designation | 2023 DZ2 |
Minor planet category |
|
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 25 February 2023 (JD 2460000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 1 | |
| Observation arc | 72 days (includes highly precise radar observations) |
| Earliest precovery date | 14 January 2023 |
| Aphelion | 3.317±0.0002 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.99388 AU |
Semi-major axis | 2.155±0.0001 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.5389±0.00003 |
Orbital period (sidereal) | 3.165±0.0003 yr (1,156±0.1 days) |
Mean anomaly | 348.67°±0.001° |
Mean motion | 0° 18m 38.16s / day |
| Inclination | 0.08143° |
Longitude of ascending node | 187.91°±0.0005° |
| 2023-Apr-04 | |
| 5.96°±0.0005° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.000048 AU (7.2 thousand km; 0.019 LD) |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions |
|
Synodic rotation period | 0.105 hours (6.3 min) |
| 10.1 (at closest approach 2023) | |
| 24.2±0.4 mag | |
The 2023 approach was visible to amateur astronomers with modest telescopes and telescopes equipped with an image sensor. From 20–24 March 2023 it was visible in the constellation of Cancer. At about 17:20 UT on the 25th the asteroid brightened to about apparent magnitude 10.1 while over Southeast Asia, and might have been visible to advanced observers using 10×50 binoculars. But for many locations the asteroid did not get brighter than magnitude 12 before setting and was out of the reach of binoculars.