2019 BE5

2019 BE₅ orbits the Sun at an average distance of approximately 0.61 astronomical units (0.0913×10^⁹ km; 0.0567×10^⁹ mi), taking 0.48 years or 174 days to complete one full orbit. It has an orbital eccentricity of 0.659 and a low inclination of 1.44 degrees to the ecliptic. The orbit of 2019 BE₅ extends from 0.21 AU at perihelion to 1.01 AU at aphelion, crossing the orbits of Mercury, Venus, and Earth. As a result, it frequently makes close passes to these planets.^[3]

2019 BE₅ is classified as an Aten asteroid, which means that it is an Earth-crossing asteroid that has an orbital semi-major axis less than 1 AU but an aphelion distance greater than Earth's perihelion distance of 0.983 AU.^[3] Its orbit has a very small minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) with Earth, estimated to be approximately 0.00001043 AU (0.00406 LD), or 1,560 km (970 mi). Despite this small Earth MOID, a possible collision with Earth in the next 100 years has been ruled out by NASA's Sentry impact prediction system.^[5] With an absolute magnitude of 25.1, 2019 BE₅ is too small to be classified as a potentially hazardous object.^[6]

On 30 January 2019, one day prior to its discovery, 2019 BE₅ made a close pass by the Moon and Earth from within 0.01 AU (3.9 LD). The asteroid made its closest approach to the Moon from a distance of 0.00830 AU (1.242×10^⁶ km; 3.23 LD) at 09:38 UTC, and then made its closest approach to Earth ten hours later, from a distance of 0.00784 AU (1.173×10^⁶ km; 3.05 LD) at 19:36 UTC.^[3]

Given an absolute magnitude of 25.1 and an assumed geometric albedo of 0.05–0.25, 2019 BE₅ is estimated to have a diameter between 25–55 metres (0.016–0.034 mi).^[4]

• List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2019