1566 Icarus

1566 Icarus
Discovery
Discovered by Walter Baade
Discovery date June 27, 1949
Designations
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
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).

Contents

Project Icarus

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]

Icarus in fiction

References

  1. ^ a b JPL Data Retrieved 2011-09-02
  2. ^ Radiometry of near-earth asteroids
  3. ^ "Systems Engineering: Avoiding an Asteroid", Time Magazine, June 16, 1967.
  4. ^ Kleiman Louis A., Project Icarus: an MIT Student Project in Systems Engineering, Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press, 1968
  5. ^ Project Icarus, MIT Report No. 13, MIT Press 1968, edited by Louis A. Kleiman. "Interdepartmental Student Project in Systems Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Spring Term, 1967"; reissued 1979.
  6. ^ a b Day, Dwayne A., "Giant bombs on giant rockets: Project Icarus", The Space Review, Monday, July 5, 2004
  7. ^ "MIT Course precept for movie", The Tech, MIT, October 30, 1979

External links

See also