| Minorplanet: | yes |
| Background: |
|
| (163249) 2002 GT | |
| Discoverer: | Spacewatch |
| Discovery Site: | Kitt Peak National Obs. |
| Discovered: | 3 April 2002 |
| Mp Category: | NEOPHAApollo |
| Mpc Name: | (163249) 2002 GT |
| Orbit Ref: | [1] |
| Epoch: | 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5) |
| Observation Arc: | 5114 days (14.00 yr) |
| Uncertainty: | 0 |
| Aphelion: | 1.7945abbr=onNaNabbr=on |
| Perihelion: | 0.89422AU |
| Semimajor: | 1.3444AU |
| Eccentricity: | 0.33483 |
| Period: | 1.56 yr (569.33 d) |
| Inclination: | 6.9681° |
| Asc Node: | 201.76° |
| Mean Motion: | / day (n) |
| Mean Anomaly: | 196.65° |
| Arg Peri: | 135.09° |
| Moid: | 0.0161099AU |
| Mean Diameter: | 350-500 m[2] |
| Rotation: | 3.7663abbr=onNaNabbr=on |
| Abs Magnitude: | 18.4 |
(163249) 2002 GT is an Apollo asteroid with an absolute magnitude of 18.26.[1] It is a potentially hazardous asteroid as its orbit crosses that of Earth.[3]
In 2011, NASA considered sending the unmanned spacecraft Deep Impact toward the asteroid with the aim of performing a flyby in 2020. It was uncertain whether Deep Impact carried sufficient fuel for this operation.
On 24 November 2011 and 4 October 2012, the space probe's thrusters were fired briefly for two trajectory correction maneuvers that targeted Deep Impact for an encounter with 2002 GT in 2020, possibly within a distance of no more than 400 kilometers. However, funding for the flyby mission was not guaranteed.[4] In June 2013 the asteroid was observed in radar by the Arecibo Observatory.[5]
However, on 8 August 2013 NASA lost communication with the spacecraft, and on 20 September 2013, NASA abandoned further attempts to contact the craft.[6] According to A'Hearn,[7] the most probable reason of software malfunction was a Y2K-like problem (at 11 August 2013 0:38:49 it was 232 deciseconds from 1 January 2000[8]).