2020 VT4
Discovery. was discovered on 14 November 2020, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The asteroid was discovered fifteen hours after its closest approach to Earth, moving about 0.28 degrees per hour across the constellation Fornax at an apparent magnitude of 17.3. At the time of discovery, was about from Earth and had a solar elongation of 134 degrees. The discovery was subsequently reported to the Minor Planet Center's near-Earth object confirmation page (NEOCP) under the internal designation A10sHcN. Further refinements to the asteroid's preliminary  trajectory were made with additional follow-up observations by the Galhassin Robotic Telescope, iTelescope Observatory, and the Glenlee Observatory. The asteroid was also identified in earlier observations by the Zwicky Transient Facility one hour before its discovery by ATLAS-MLO. The asteroid was then confirmed by the Minor Planet Center and announced with the provisional designation on 14 November 2020. Orbit and classification. is currently on an Earth-crossing Aten-type orbit with an orbital semi-major axis of and an orbital period of 0.86 years or 316 days. With a nominal perihelion distance of and an aphelion distance of  , 's orbit extends from Venus to Earth, resulting in occasional close passes with these planets. The nominal minimum orbit intersection distances (MOID) with Venus and Earth are approximately and , respectively. has an orbital eccentricity of 0.203 and an inclination of 10.2 degrees to the ecliptic. Before the Earth encounter on 13 November 2020, had an Apollo-type orbit crossing the paths of Earth and Mars. It had a perihelion distance of and a semi-major axis of , with an orbital period of 1.5 years or 550 days. The orbit had an orbital eccentricity of 0.246 and an inclination of 12.9  degrees to the ecliptic. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Small-Body Database still provides an Apollo-type osculating orbit for based on the epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) before the Earth encounter; excluding all gravitational perturbations, the given orbit implies the asteroid would have passed perihelion 19 hours after it passed Earth. 2020 flyby. On 13 November 2020, 15 hours prior to its discovery, passed over the South Pacific Ocean at 17:20 UTC. At this time of closest approach, 's on-sky position was close to the Sun with a minimum solar elongation of 36 degrees, making it unobservable  to Earth-based telescopes. passed closer to Earth than any known asteroid, except for those that became meteors. It passed closer than 2020 QG and , which passed about 3,000 km and 5,500 km from Earth's surface, respectively.