is a near-Earth asteroid that was discovered on 10 January 2010 at Grove Creek Observatory, Australia.
Italian scientists Ernesto Guido and Giovanni Sostero told RIA Novosti that it had an orbital period of almost exactly one year and might be a spent rocket booster.What was that Mystery object whizzes past Earth, The Times of India, January 14, 2010 However, it was determined that it is a near-Earth asteroid.Small Asteroid 2010 AL30 Will Fly Past The Earth. NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program, January 12, 2010. On January 13, 2010 at 1246 UT it passed Earth at , about 1/3 of the distance from the Earth to the Moon (or 0.33 LD).
Based an estimated diameter of , if had entered the Earth's atmosphere, it would have created a meteor air burst equivalent to between 50 kT and 100 kT (kilotons of TNT). The Nagasaki "Fat Man" atom bomb had a yield between 13–18 kT.Near-Earth Object 2010 AL30. NASA Earth Science Picture of the Day March 06, 2010.
It has an uncertainty parameter of 3 and has been observed by radar. Radar observations show the asteroid is elongated and is about 30 meters in diameter. It may be a contact binary.
See also
List of asteroid close approaches to Earth
References
External links MPEC 2010-A59 : 2010 AL30 – (Minor Planet Center / 2010 Jan. 11) MPEC 2010-A64 : 2010 AL30 – (Minor Planet Center / 2010 Jan. 12) Mystery object 2010 AL30 to pass within 130,000 km of Earth (heraldsun.com) NEO 2010 AL30 Close Approach – (Remanzacco Observatory / January 11, 2010) Goldstone detects "STRONG" radar echoes from 2010 AL30 – (Emily Lakdawalla / Jan. 12, 2010) First Results of the Goldstone High-Resolution Chirp Radar Imaging System: Application to Near-Earth Asteroid 2010 AL30 – (2011 October 4) Weird Object Zooming by Earth Wednesday is Likely an Asteroid, www.space.com, January 2010