This minor planet, belonging to the "Apollo" class, is also flagged as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid", an object that, because of its orbital parameters, might represent a possible threat of impact for planet Earth.
It has beeen discovered serendipitously by the Spanish amateur astronomer J. M. Bosch (Santa Maria de Montmagastrell, MPC#B74) on 2009, Sept. 16.2, ay magnitude about 17. At that time it was posted on the NEO-CP webpage of the Minor Planet Center as "jmbo11"; after a couple of days it was withdrawn, because it was not confirmed by any further observations.
On 2009, Sept. 22, the LINEAR sky survey picked-up a fast moving object, that was posted in the NEO-CP as "BQ24981". After some follow-up observations from various sites, on 2009 Sept. 23 the MPC published M.P.E.C. 2009-S72 informing that the two objects mentioned before were actually the same celestial body.
We performed some follow-up of this object on 2009, Sept.23.1, remotely from the Mayhill Station (NM) of the GRAS network. Click on the image below for a bigger version.
According to the NEODyS webpage this object. about 0.5-Km in diameter, made a close pass to Earth on 1980, Oct. 4, at a minimum possible distance of about 0.009 AU (nominal distance of about 0.04 AU).
Congratulations to J. M. Bosch for his find.
E. Guido, G. Sostero, P. Camilleri, M. Jaeger, E. Prosperi, W. Vollmann
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