2023 GQ2

2023 GQ₂
Discovery
Discovery site	Bok Telescope @ Kitt Peak National Observatory
Discovery date	12 April 2023
Designations
MPC designation	2023 GQ2
Minor planet category	NEO; PHA; Apollo; risk–listed;
Orbital characteristics
	Epoch 25 February 2023 (JD 2460000.5)
	Uncertainty parameter 3
Observation arc	3.93 years
Earliest precovery date	13 May 2019
Aphelion	2.305 AU
Perihelion	0.9837 AU
Semi-major axis	1.6444 AU
Eccentricity	0.4017
Orbital period (sidereal)	2.11 yr; (770.17 days)
Mean anomaly	106.38°
Inclination	36.84°
Longitude of ascending node	53.83°
Time of perihelion	2022-Jul-12
Argument of perihelion	349.34°
Earth MOID	0.0012 AU (180 thousand km; 0.47 LD)
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	290–650 meters; ≈400 m (1,300 ft);
Absolute magnitude (H)	19.8±0.3 mag

2023 GQ₂ is an asteroid roughly 400 meters in diameter, classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous object of the Apollo group. It was first discovered on 12 April 2023, when it was 1.3 AU (190 million km) from Earth, with the Bok Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.^[1] On 19 April 2023, with an observation arc of 6.7 days, it was rated 1 on the Torino scale for a virtual impactor on 16 November 2028 at 00:58 UTC.^[4] When it had a Palermo scale rating of –0.70,^[4] the odds of impact were about 5 times less than the background hazard level and this gave the asteroid one of the highest Palermo scale ratings ever issued. On 20 April 2023 precovery images from May 2019 were announced extending the observation arc to 3.9 years,^[1] and the 2028 virtual impactor was removed from the Sentry Risk Table.^[2] It is now known the nominal approach will safely occur about 13 hours after the impact scenario on 16 November 2028 13:36 ± 40 minutes.^[3]

The asteroid will come to aphelion (farthest distance from the Sun) around 1 August 2023.^[5]

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