List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2008 explained

Asteroid Close Approaches to Earth
Subheader:	2008
Header1:	Other Years
Below:	2000-2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2008. 2008 was the first year that an asteroid was successfully detected before it impacted earth (was the first successfully predicted asteroid impact).

Timeline of close approaches less than one lunar distance from Earth in 2008

A list of known near-Earth asteroid close approaches less than 1 lunar distance (384,400 km or 0.00257 AU) from Earth in 2008.^[1]

Apart from, this list does not include any of the other objects that collided with earth in 2008 as they were not discovered in advance, but were recorded by sensors designed to detect detonation of nuclear devices.^[2]

Date of closest approach	Date discovered	width=100	Object	width=205 data-sort-type="number"	Nominal geocentric distance (AU)^[3]	data-sort-type="number"	Nominal geocentric distance (LD)	data-sort-type="number"	Size (m) (approximate)	data-sort-type="number"	(H) (abs. mag)	Closer approach to Moon	width=120	Refs^[4] ^[5]
2008-01-13	2008-01-10		0.00252AU	align=center	0.98	align=center	16–36	align=center	26.1	align=center
2008-01-16	2008-01-19		0.00238AU	align=center	0.93	align=center	3.1–6.8	align=center	29.7	align=center
2008-01-31	2008-01-30		0.00198AU	align=center	0.77	align=center	13–28	align=center	26.6	align=center	Yes
2008-02-05	2008-02-03		0.00089AU	align=center	0.35	align=center	7.7–17	align=center	27.7	align=center
2008-02-15	2008-02-09		0.00248AU	align=center	0.97	align=center	28–62	align=center	24.9	align=center
2008-03-09	2008-03-07		0.00108AU	align=center	0.42	align=center	11–24	align=center	27.0	align=center
2008-03-10	2008-03-11		0.00044AU	align=center	0.17	align=center	3.5–7.8	align=center	29.4	align=center
2008-03-10	2008-03-08		0.00148AU	align=center	0.57	align=center	8.4–19	align=center	27.5	align=center
2008-03-23	2008-03-27		0.00218AU	align=center	0.85	align=center	9.2–21	align=center	27.3	align=center	Yes
2008-03-29	2008-03-28		0.00114AU	align=center	0.44	align=center	15–33	align=center	26.3	align=center
2008-04-03	2008-04-06		0.00139AU	align=center	0.54	align=center	5.8–13	align=center	28.3	align=center
2008-04-07	2008-04-05		0.00196AU	align=center	0.76	align=center	5.8–13	align=center	28.3	align=center	Yes
2008-05-10	2008-05-11		0.00115AU	align=center	0.45	align=center	3.2–7.1	align=center	29.6	align=center	Yes
2008-07-29	2008-07-30		0.00116AU	align=center	0.45	align=center	10–23	align=center	27.1	align=center
2008-10-03	2008-10-08		0.00165AU	align=center	0.64	align=center	7.3–16	align=center	27.8	align=center
2008-10-07	2008-10-06		impact	impact	4.1	30.4^[6]
2008-10-09	2008-10-09		8.44E-05AU	align=center	0.03	align=center	0.61–1.4	align=center	33.2	align=center
2008-10-18	2008-10-29		0.00223AU	align=center	0.87	align=center	3.5–7.8	align=center	29.4	align=center
2008-10-20	2008-10-21		0.00022AU	align=center	0.09	align=center	1.4–3.1	align=center	31.4	align=center
2008-10-22	2008-10-22		0.00057AU	align=center	0.22	align=center	1.0–2.3	align=center	32.1	align=center
2008-11-03	2008-11-03		0.00031AU	align=center	0.12	align=center	2.4–5.4	align=center	30.2	align=center

Warning Times by Size

This table visualizes the warning times of the close approaches listed in the above table, depending on the size of the asteroid. The sizes of each pie chart show the relative sizes of the asteroids to scale. For comparison, the approximate size of a person is also shown. This is based around the absolute magnitude of each asteroid, an approximate measure of size based on brightness.

Notes

Additional examples

An example list of near-Earth asteroids that passed more than 1 lunar distance (384,400 km or 0.00256 AU) from Earth in 2008.

• (~250 meters in diameter) passed 1.44 LD (554,000 km) from Earth on January 29, 2008.
• (~18 meters in diameter) passed between 0.9997 and 1.0023 LD (384,300 to 385,300 km) from Earth on February 6, 2008.
• (~650 meters in diameter) passed 5.9 LD (2.3 million km) from Earth on July 14, 2008.
• 2008 XK (~12 meters in diameter) may have passed as close as 0.23 LD (89,300 km) from Earth on December 5, 2008, but the nominal orbit suggests it passed nearer to 1.46 LD (560,500 km) from Earth instead.

See also

• List of asteroid close approaches to Earth
• List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2000-2007
• List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2009

Notes and References

1. For a list of current Earth close approaches see NEO Earth Close Approaches
2. Asteroids which collide with earth before being detected never receive a designation and do not appear in either the NASA or IAU lists of asteroids as there is no astrometry for them.
3. Distance from the center of Earth to the center of the object. See the NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics Glossary: Geocentric. Earth has a radius of approximately 6,400 km.
4. Web site: JPL Small-Body Database Browser . JPL Solar System Dynamics . NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
5. Web site: MPC Database . IAU Minor Planet Center . International Astronomical Union . 1 January 2021.
6. Web site: JPL Small-Body Database Browser: (2008 TC3) . last observation: 2008-10-07.