Discovery
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Discovered by | Walter Baade |
Discovery date | June 27, 1949 |
Designations
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Named after | Icarus |
Alternate name(s) | 1949 MA |
Minor planet category |
Apollo asteroid, Mercury-crosser asteroid, Venus-crosser asteroid, Mars-crosser asteroid |
Epoch August 27, 2011 (JD 2455800.5) | |
Aphelion | 1.9691548727 AU |
Perihelion | 0.18665203 AU |
Semi-major axis | 1.0779034528 AU |
Eccentricity | 0.82683789 |
Orbital period | 1.1191234523 a (408.7598409 d) |
Mean anomaly | 254.29362° |
Inclination | 22.82825° |
Longitude of ascending node | 88.027986° |
Argument of perihelion | 31.350320° |
Physical characteristics
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Dimensions | 1.4 km |
Mass | 2.9×1012 kg |
Mean density | 2 ? g/cm³ |
Equatorial surface gravity | 0.000 39 m/s² |
Escape velocity | 0.000 74 km/s |
Rotation period | 0.094 71 d |
Albedo | 0.4[2] |
Temperature | ~242 K |
Spectral type | U |
Absolute magnitude (H) | 16.9 |
1566 Icarus ( /ˈɪkərəs/ ik-ə-rəs) is an Apollo asteroid (a sub-class of near-Earth asteroid) that at perihelion comes closer to the Sun than Mercury, i.e. it is a Mercury-crossing asteroid. It is also a Venus and Mars-crosser. It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun. It was discovered in 1949 by Walter Baade.
Icarus makes a close approach to Earth at gaps of 9, 19, or 38 years. Rarely, it comes as close as 6.4 Gm (16 lunar distances and 4 million miles), as it did on June 14, 1968. The last close approach was in 1996, at 15.1 Gm, almost 40 times as far as the Moon.[1] The next close approach will be June 16, 2015, at 8.1 Gm (5 million miles).
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In the spring of 1967, Professor Paul Sandorff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave his students in a systems engineering class the task to devise a plan to destroy Icarus in the case that it was on a collision course with Earth. This plan is known as Project Icarus. Time magazine ran an article on the endeavor in June 1967[3] and the following year the student report was published as a book.[4][5][6] This report was the basis and inspiration for the 1979 science fiction film Meteor.[6][7]
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