1981 Midas

**1981 Midas**
Discovery ^A

Discoverer	Charles T. Kowal
Discovery date	March 6, 1973
Alternate designations ^B	1973 EA
Category	Apollo Venus crosser Mars crosser
Orbital elements ^C
Epoch December 1, 2005 (JD 2453705.5)
Eccentricity (e)	0.650
Semi-major axis (a)	1.776 AU
Perihelion (q)	0.621 AU
Aphelion (Q)	2.931 AU
Orbital period (P)	864.541 d
Mean orbital speed	19.757 km/s
Inclination (i)	39.838°
Longitude of the ascending node (Ω)	357.037°
Argument of perihelion (ω)	267.739°
Mean anomaly (M)	267.903°
Physical characteristics ^D
Dimensions
Mass
Density
Surface gravity
Escape velocity
Rotation period	5.22 h
Spectral class
Absolute magnitude	15.5
Albedo (geometric)
Mean surface temperature
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The asteroid 1981 Midas was discovered on March 6, 1973 by Charles T. Kowal at Palomar Observatory. It is named after Midas, the king of Phrygia in Greek mythology who turned objects to gold when he touched them. Midas is an Apollo asteroid, a Venus and Mars-crosser asteroid with an orbital period of 2 years, 134 days.

Its last close approach to Earth was in 1992, passing at 19.9 Gm; the next one is a 2018 approach of 13.4 Gm.

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