2022 UQ1



 was a minor planet provisional designation that was mistakenly given to the Lucy mission's Centaur upper stage booster during its Earth gravity assist flyby in October 2022. The object passed about 9100 km from the center of Earth (or an altitude of 2700 km above the surface of Earth) during its closest approach on 16 October 2022.

Because the object approached Earth from the direction of the Sun, it was not discovered until after its closest approach. The object was discovered on 18 October 2022 by one of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescopes in Rio Hurtado, Chile, which reported it to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) as a near-Earth object candidate. Three other observatories produced follow-up observations on the following day and confirmed the object was on a near-Earth orbit, prompting the MPC to announce the object as a new near-Earth object with the provisional designation on 19 October 2022. The object was later identified as the Lucy mission's Centaur upper stage booster by Bill Gray and Davide Farnocchia, resulting in the MPC deleting from its database on 20 October 2022.

Orbit
came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 27 July 2022 at a distance of 0.84 AU, between the orbits of Venus and Earth. The Earth encounter in October reduced the period of its heliocentric orbit from 1 year to about 241 days and reduced its perihelion to 0.52 AU, placing it in between the orbits of Mercury and Venus.