Asteroid "2007 TU24"

Asteroid "2007 TU24" possible interference with Earth ~January 29, 2008
Picking up interesting dialog regarding TU 24 Asteroid. It will have its nearest pass on January 29, 2008.
It is 400 meters, and will pass within 0.0045 AUs from earth.
This is very very close as these things go.
Any input? Would it disrupt tides? Or anything else.
There is some talk about a collision with earth, but ...... these threads seem to go overboard about reality.
Just a heads up.





Background

2007 TU24 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey (Arizona) on October 11, 2007.
This object's 1.4-lunar-distance approach on Jan. 29 is the closest for any
known Potentially Hazardous Asteroid until 2027.
ADDITIONAL ASTROMETRY IS STILL DESIRABLE FOR THIS OBJECT

Apart from its absolute visual magnitude (H = 20.1, implying a
diameter ~0.3 km if it has a typical S-class albedo), nothing is known
about TU24's physical properties, but the expected echo
signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) almost certainly will suffice for
high-resolution imaging using Arecibo or Goldstone.

Goldstone observations are scheduled on January 23 and Arecibo observations are
scheduled on January 27-28 and February 1-4. Note that Goldstone observations straddle
the January 23-24 date boundary.

This object will brighten to about 11th magnitude in late January
when it will be a target for photometric and spectroscopic observations.

Orbital and Physical Characteristics
orbit type Apollo
semimajor axis 2.010 AU
eccentricity 0.529
inclination 5.8°
perihelion distance 0.947 AU
aphelion distance 3.073 AU
absolute magnitude (H) 20.1
diameter 300 meters +- a factor of two
rotation period unknown
pole direction unknown
lightcurve amplitude unknown
spectral class unknown

We would like to thank the following stations, which have provided astrometry
since we announced our intentions to schedule radar observations of this object:

204 Schiaparelli Observatory Italy
432 Boambee Australia
448 Desert Moon Observatory New Mexico, USA
I77 CEAMIG-REA Observatory Brazil


2007 TU24 Interval of close approach predictibility
---------------------------------------------------
From Jon Giorgini, 2008 Jan. 18:

The 2007 TU24 sol #17 interval is now 1890 - 2008.
This is largely due to there not being other close approaches for the next
few decades after this very close approach in 2008 (0.0037 AU) and then a
somewhat close one in 2046 (0.019 AU).

Date (CT) Body CA Dist MinDist MaxDist Vrel TCA3Sg Nsigs P_i/p
----------------- ----- ------- ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ -------
1750 Nov 27.50180 Earth .089278 .081438 .136523 9.368 23142. 25317. .000000
....
1890 Dec 04.01632 Earth .084277 .079805 .089713 9.040 3754.7 22823. .000000
1911 Jan 03.56964 Earth .054638 .045672 .064380 8.072 10714. 11733. .000000
1930 Dec 06.90665 Earth .080687 .075038 .092864 8.939 10151. 23371. .000000
1960 Jan 24.70670 Vesta .054213 .019047 .090536 12.291 1567.5 1515.9 .000000
1999 Dec 30.34491 Vesta .083841 .074741 .092945 12.613 471.02 931.17 .000000
2008 Jan 29.35570 Earth .003704 .003702 .003706 9.248 7.52 7626.1 .000000
....
2029 Jan 07.16022 Vesta .088738 .068060 .109525 11.258 390.99 1924.1 .000000
2046 Jan 18.30808 Earth .019217 .004279 .059568 8.193 21570. 4936.4 .000000

Last update: 2008 January 18