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2011 CQ1's path by Earth

2011 CQ1's path by Earth
2011 CQ1's path by Earth Asteroid 2011 CQ1 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on February 4, 2011 and made a record close Earth approach 14 hours later on February 4 at 19:39 UT (14:39 EST). It passed to within 0.85 Earth radii (5480 km) of the Earth's surface over a region in the mid-Pacific. This object, only about one meter in diameter, is the closest non-impacting object in our asteroid catalog to date. Prior to the Earth close approach, this object was in a so-called Apollo-class orbit that was mostly outside the Earth's orbit. Following the close approach, the Earth's gravitational attraction modified the object's orbit to an Aten-class orbit where the asteroid spends almost all of its time inside the Earth's orbit. As is evident from the diagram, the close Earth approach changed the asteroid's flight path by about 60 degrees. NASA / JPL