3671 Dionysus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3671 Dionysus is a small Amor asteroid, orbiting between the Earth and Mars. It ws discovered by Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory on 27 May 1984. It is named after Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. Its provisional designation was 1984 KD.

Dionysus is a B-type asteroid and measures approximately 1.5km in diameter.

In 1997, a team of astronomers at the European Southern Observatory announced that lightcurve observations indicate the presence of a small moon orbiting Dionysus. This moon measures 300 metres in diameter, and orbits 3.6km from Dionysus. It has received the provisional designation S/1997 (3671) 1.