1981 Midas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by: | Charles T. Kowal |
| Discovery date: | March 6, 1973 |
| Alternative names: | 1973 EA |
| Minor planet category: | Apollo Venus crosser Mars crosser |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch December 1, 2005 (JD 2453705.5) | |
| Aphelion distance: | 2.931 AU |
| Perihelion distance: | 0.621 AU |
| Semi-major axis: | 1.776 AU |
| Eccentricity: | 0.650 |
| Orbital period: | 864.541 d |
| Avg. orbital speed: | 19.757 km/s |
| Mean anomaly: | 267.903° |
| Inclination: | 39.838° |
| Longitude of ascending node: | 357.037° |
| Argument of perihelion: | 267.739° |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Rotation period: | 5.22 h |
| Absolute magnitude: | 15.5 |
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.
[edit] References
- Catchall Catalog of Minor Planets
- IAUCs 2816, 2890,2979, 2991
- NeoDys
- JPL neo page, including orbit diagrams
See also: List of asteroids
| Minor planets | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous minor planet | 1981 Midas | Next minor planet |
| List of asteroids | ||
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.
 |
This asteroid-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
