Hathor

2340 Hathor (1976 UA)

Near-Earth Potentially Hazardous
Space Reference » Aten-class Asteroids » Hathor

Key Facts

  • Categorized as a Aten-class Asteroid
  • Comparable in size to a football field (0.30 km diameter)
  • Will pass within 21,548,188 km of Earth in 2019
  • Classified as a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA)
  • Classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA)
  • See orbit simulation

Overview

Hathor is a very small asteroid whose orbit could bring it in close proximity to Earth. NASA JPL has classified Hathor as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid" due to its predicted close pass(es) with Earth.

Hathor orbits the sun every 283 days (0.77 years), coming as close as 0.46 AU and reaching as far as 1.22 AU from the sun. Hathor is about 0.3 kilometers in diameter, making it a small to average asteroid, comparable in size to a football field.

The rotation of Hathor has been observed. It completes a rotation on its axis every 3.35 hours.

Hathor's spectral type CSU (Tholen) / Sq (SMASSII) indicates that it is likely to contain and .

Close Approaches

Hathor's orbit is 0.01 AU from Earth's orbit at its closest point. This means that its orbit is relatively close to Earth's orbit.

Hathor has 27 close approaches predicted in the coming decades:

Date Distance from Earth (km) Velocity (km/s)
Jan. 13, 2019 21,548,188 10.280
Nov. 1, 2021 24,029,015 10.006
Jan. 17, 2026 15,619,349 13.914
Jan. 13, 2033 29,877,297 18.508
Oct. 23, 2038 17,000,495 16.738
Oct. 21, 2045 3,619,420 12.588
Jan. 13, 2050 21,562,374 10.291
Nov. 2, 2052 25,384,883 9.985
Jan. 16, 2057 17,998,881 15.067
Oct. 25, 2062 27,078,370 18.891
Oct. 21, 2069 981,446 13.202
Jan. 15, 2074 18,976,752 10.877
Oct. 21, 2086 825,012 13.289
Jan. 15, 2091 19,684,881 10.778
Oct. 23, 2103 4,400,982 14.119
Jan. 11, 2108 25,278,559 9.913
Nov. 1, 2110 22,713,548 10.038
Jan. 18, 2115 18,287,025 14.922
Oct. 25, 2120 24,320,374 18.317
Oct. 23, 2127 6,641,134 12.005
Jan. 18, 2132 17,584,927 11.463
Oct. 22, 2144 4,243,696 14.093
Jan. 10, 2149 25,696,531 9.879
Oct. 31, 2151 21,649,711 10.084
Jan. 19, 2156 16,879,452 14.220
Oct. 22, 2168 791,741 13.391
Oct. 23, 2175 2,551,316 12.795

Images and Observations

Hathor's orbit is determined by observations dating back to Oct. 25, 1976. It was last officially observed on Dec. 5, 2021. The IAU Minor Planet Center records 572 observations used to determine its orbit.

Accessibility and Exploration

This asteroid is not considered a viable target for human exploration by the NHATS study.

Similar Objects

These objects have orbits that share similar characteristics to the orbit of Hathor:

References

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Orbital Elements

  • Epoch: 2460200.5 JD
  • Semi-major axis: 0.8438 AU
  • Eccentricity: 0.4499
  • Inclination: 5.86°
  • Longitude of Ascending Node: 211.3°
  • Argument of Periapsis: 40.09°
  • Mean Anomaly: 264.78°

Physical Characteristics

  • Diameter: 0.30000 km
  • Magnitude: 20.43
  • Spectral type (Tholen): CSU
  • Spectral type (SMASS): Sq

Derived Characteristics

  • Orbit Period: 283 days (0.77 years)
  • Avg. Orbit Speed: 32.44 km/s
  • Aphelion Distance: 1.22 AU
  • Perihelion Distance: 0.46 AU
  • Rotation Period: 3.35 hours
  • Approx. Composition: and .

Map Comparison

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Orbit Simulation

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Sky Map

The position of Hathor is indicated by a ◯ pink circle. Note that the object may not be in your current field of view. Use the controls below to adjust position, location, and time.

Size Rendering

The below comparison is an artistic rendering that uses available data on the diameter of Hathor to create an approximate landscape rendering with New York City in the background. This approximation is built for full-resolution desktop browsers. Shape, color, and texture of asteroid are imagined.