(89959) 2002 NT7


, provisional designation, is a near-Earth object with a diameter of 1.4 kilometers and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group. It has a well determined orbit with an observation arc of 64 years including precovery images by Palomar Observatory dating back to 1954.
became the first object observed by NASA's NEO program to be assigned a positive rating on both the Torino Scale and the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale, for a small chance of an impact on 1 February 2019, although it has now been known for years that it would pass Earth at roughly on 13 January 2019 with an uncertainty region of about ±108 km.

Discovery

It was discovered on 9 July 2002 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team at the U.S. Lincoln Laboratory Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico. At the time of discovery it only had a 6-day observation arc of 9–14 July which poorly constrained possible future positions of the asteroid.
Despite inflammatory press reports, the object had a "low probability" of impact of approximately one in a million for 1 February 2019. On 22 July 2002, NEODyS posted a positive 0.18 Palermo Scale rating. Further observations of the object quickly lowered the probability. On 25 July 2002, the hazard rating on the Palermo scale was lowered to -0.25. However, the discovery of the object with a Palermo initial rating of 0.06 was a historical event for the NEO observation program.
was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 1 August 2002, so there is no risk of an impact by it in the next 100 years. On 13 January 2019, the asteroid safely passed from Earth with a 3-sigma uncertainty region of about ±108 km. Between 1900 and 2195 the closest approach to Earth will occur on 15 January 2099 at a distance of roughly with uncertainty region of about ±430 km.
On 30 January 2020, the asteroid safety passed from 2 Pallas.