(164121) 2003 YT1
asteroid
(164121) 2003 YT1 is a bright asteroid and synchronous binary system on a highly eccentric orbit, classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group, approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 18 December 2003, by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey at the Catalina Station near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. The V-type asteroid has a short rotation period of 2.3 hours. Its 210-meter sized minor-planet moon was discovered at Arecibo Observatory in May 2004.
Orbit and classification
2003 YT1 is a member of the Earth-crossing group of Apollo asteroids, the largest group of near-Earth objects with approximately 10 thousand known members.
It orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.8–1.4 AU once every 1 years and 2 months (427 days; semi-major axis of 1.11 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.29 and an inclination of 44° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in November 1989, more than 14 years prior to its official discovery observation at Catalina.
Close approaches and Torino rating
The asteroid has an Earth minimum orbital intersection distance of 0.0027 AU (404,000 km; 251,000 mi), which corresponds to 1.05 lunar distances and makes it a potentially hazardous asteroid due to its sufficiently large size. On the Torino Scale, this object was rated level 1 on 27 December 2003 with an observation arc of 8.7 days.
“(164121) 2003 YT1” enters the record as asteroid. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what asteroid can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15195085. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2004 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “(164121) 2003 YT1” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.