Asteroid (285263) 1998 QE2 was discovered on Aug. 19, 1998, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program.

1998 QE2 has an estimated size of 1.3 km - 2.9 km (based on the object's absolute magnitude H=16.6). It was observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope by Trilling et al. (2010), who estimated that it has a diameter of 2.7 km and a dark optical albedo of 0.06. This asteroid will have a close approach with Earth at about 15.2 LD (Lunar Distances = ~384,000 kilometers) or 0.0392 AU (1 AU = ~150 million kilometers) at 2059 UT on 2013 May 31 and it will reach the peak magnitude ~10.8 on May 31 around 2300 UT.

(285263) 1998 QE2 will be a great Goldstone radar target May 30 through June 9. This is going to be one of the best radar targets of the year. Radar images from the Goldstone antenna could achieve resolutions as fine as 3.75 meters.

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object, from the Q62 iTelescope network (Siding Spring) on 2013, May 17.36, through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + f/4.5 focal reducer.

Below you can see our image, stack of 15x10-second exposure, taken with the asteroid at magnitude ~14.5 and moving at ~3.13 "/min. At the moment of the close approach 1998 QE2 will move at ~23 "/min. Click on the image below to see a bigger version. North is up, East is to the left.
Asteroid 1998 QE2
© Remanzacco Observatory
Here you can see a short animation showing the movement of 1998 QE2 (15x10-second exposures).