(33342) 1998 WT24

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(33342) 1998 WT24 is a bright, small near-Earth asteroid in the Aten group. It is considered potentially hazardous because its orbit brings it close to Earth. The asteroid was discovered on 25 November 1998 by the LINEAR survey at Lincoln Laboratory’s Experimental Test Site.

Size and surface: It is about 350–415 meters across (roughly 0.35–0.42 km) and has a high albedo, meaning it reflects a lot of sunlight. It’s classified as an E-type asteroid.

Orbit: It travels around the Sun every about 222 days (0.61 years). Its orbit is highly elongated (semi-major axis ~0.72 AU, eccentricity ~0.418) with a small tilt of about 7.3 degrees to the ecliptic. Its closest approach to Earth (Earth MOID) is about 0.0097 AU (roughly 3.8 lunar distances). It also crosses the orbits of Mercury and Venus, leading to frequent close encounters with these planets.

Close approaches and observations: A notable close approach occurred on 11 December 2015, when it came within about 4.2 million kilometers (11 lunar distances) of Earth and reached around magnitude 11. Radar observations were made during 2001 and 2015. Its rotation period is about 3.697 hours, and its surface albedo estimates range from about 0.34 to 0.75.

Designation and naming: It was numbered by the Minor Planet Center on 18 August 2002, but as of 2018 it has not been given a formal name.