Apollo asteroid

The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group to be discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth. They are Earth-crosser asteroids that have orbital semi-major axes greater than that of the Earth. Some can get very close to the Earth, making them a potential threat to our planet (the closer their semi-major axis is to Earth's, the less eccentricity is needed for the orbits to cross).

The largest known Apollo asteroid is 1866 Sisyphus, with a diameter of about 10 km.

Well-known Apollo asteroids include:

Name	Year	Discoverer
2004 XP₁₄	2004	LINEAR
2004 AS₁	2004	LINEAR
1998 KY₂₆	1998	Spacewatch
1997 XR₂	1997	LINEAR
69230 Hermes	1937	Karl Reinmuth
(53319) 1999 JM₈	1999	LINEAR
(52760) 1998 ML₁₄	1998	LINEAR
(35396) 1997 XF₁₁	1997	Spacewatch
(29075) 1950 DA	1950	Carl A. Wirtanen
25143 Itokawa	1998	LINEAR
6489 Golevka	1991	Eleanor F. Helin
4769 Castalia	1989	Eleanor F. Helin
4660 Nereus	1982	Eleanor F. Helin
4581 Asclepius	1989	Henry E. Holt, Norman G. Thomas
4486 Mithra	1987	Eric Elst, Vladimir Shkodrov
(4197) 1982 TA	1982	Eleanor F. Helin, Eugene Shoemaker
4183 Cuno	1959	Cuno Hoffmeister
4179 Toutatis	1989	Christian Pollas
4015 Wilson-Harrington	1979	Eleanor F. Helin
3200 Phaethon	1983	Simon F. Green, John K. Davies / IRAS
2101 Adonis	1936	Eugène Joseph Delporte
2063 Bacchus	1977	Charles T. Kowal
1866 Sisyphus	1972	Paul Wild
1862 Apollo	1932	Karl Reinmuth
1685 Toro	1948	Carl A. Wirtanen
1620 Geographos	1951	Albert George Wilson, Rudolph Minkowski
1566 Icarus	1949	Walter Baade

[edit] See also

v • d • e Small Solar System bodies
Vulcanoids \| Near-Earth asteroids \| Main belt \| Jupiter Trojans \| Centaurs \| Damocloids \| Comets \| Trans-Neptunians (Kuiper belt · Scattered disc · Oort cloud)
For other objects and regions, see: asteroid groups and families, binary asteroids, asteroid moons and the Solar system For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids. See also Pronunciation of asteroid names and Meanings of asteroid names.