2009 JF1

2009 JF₁ is a small near-Earth object that should have passed within 0.3 AU (45 million km) of Earth in 2022.^[5] On 5 February 2022 the 2009 observations were remeasured greatly reducing the odds of an impact. On 6 May 2022 it had a 1-in-140,000 chance of impacting Earth.^[3] It is estimated to be 10-meters in diameter which would make it smaller than the Chelyabinsk meteor. It has a very short observation arc of 1.2 days and has not been observed since 2009. On 6 May 2022 it was nominally expected to be 0.2 AU (30 million km) from Earth but has an uncertainty region of ±23 million km (0.15 AU).^[5] The nominal Earth approach was 15 May 2022 and would have had the asteroid only brightening to apparent magnitude 26 which would have made it too faint for automated surveys to detect.^[6][7] With a Palermo scale rating of -4.41,^[3] the odds of impact were 26000 times less than the background hazard level for an asteroid of this size.

Virtual impactor^[3]

Date	Impact probability (1 in)	JPL Horizons nominal geocentric distance (AU)	NEODyS nominal geocentric distance (AU)	MPC[8] nominal geocentric distance (AU)	Find_Orb nominal geocentric distance (AU)	uncertainty region (3-sigma)
2022-05-06	140000	0.19 AU (28 million km)[5]	0.16 AU (24 million km)[7]	0.19 AU (28 million km)	0.19 AU (28 million km)[9]	± 23 million km[5]

2009 JF₁

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Mount Lemmon Survey
Discovery date	4 May 2009
Designations
MPC designation	2009 JF1
Minor planet category	NEO Apollo
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch 2022-Jan-21 (JD 2459600.5)
Uncertainty parameter 7
Observation arc	1.2 days[3]
Aphelion	3.29 AU (Q)
Perihelion	0.4953 AU (q)
Semi-major axis	1.89 AU (a)
Eccentricity	0.738 (e)
Orbital period (sidereal)	2.6 years
Mean anomaly	300°±3° (M)
Inclination	6.16° (i)
Longitude of ascending node	45.5° (Ω)
Time of perihelion	2022-Jul-02 ± 3 days
Argument of perihelion	281° (ω)
Earth MOID	0.000055 AU (8,200 km)
Jupiter MOID	2.1 AU (310,000,000 km)
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	~10 m (33 ft)[3] 8–17 meters
Absolute magnitude (H)	27.7[2][4]

About two months after approaching Earth, it came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun), but the time of perihelion passage is only known with an accuracy of ±3 days.^[2] The asteroid was not recovered due to its small size and distance from Earth.

See also

• 2006 QV89
• 2018 VP1