Apohele asteroid
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Apohele asteroids are a subclass of Aten asteroids. They have not only their perihelion at less than one AU (within Earth's orbit), but also their aphelion; that is, their entire orbit is within Earth's.
As of March 2008 there are only five confirmed Apoheles: (163693) Atira, (164294) 2004 XZ130, 2004 JG6, 2005 TG45 and 2006 WE4, and four suspected Apoheles: 1998 DK36, 2006 KZ39, 2007 EB26 and 2008 EA32. These asteroids have aphelia in the 0.980–0.973 AU range. In great part because of the search methods used to look for asteroids, there are currently no known asteroids with orbits contained within Venus' or Mercury's (e.g., Vulcanoids).
The name Apohele is still under a bit of debate, since most asteroid subclasses are named for prominent members of that group (for example, Aten asteroids are named for 2062 Aten, the first such asteroid discovered), whereas there is no asteroid named "Apohele". Apohele is said to be the Hawaiian word for orbit; it was chosen partially because of its similariy to the words aphelion (apoapsis and helios).[1]
