2006 HZ51

An Amor asteroid (a type of near-Earth asteroid) that is one of largest objects to appear on NASA/JPL's list of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs); it has a diameter of about 800 meters. It is also the PHA that could strike Earth the soonest, though the probability of this happening is only about one is 6 million. The earliest of its 165 possible computed impact dates is June 21, 2008. While the chances of a collision are tiny, the discovery of so large an object with so small a lead time to its first possible impact date highlights the danger humanity still faces from this kind of threat. With so little advance warning, none of the measures suggested for deflecting a potentially hazardous asteroid would be able to be put into effect.

diameter	780 m (est.)
albedo	n/a
eccentricity	0.501
semi-major axis	2.125 AU
perihelion	1.056 AU
aphelion	3.191 AU
orbital period	2.0986 years
inclination	12.69°

Related category

• NOTABLE ASTEROIDS, CENTAURS, AND KUIPER BELT OBJECTS

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