65803 Didymos

Didymos
Discovery and designation
Discovered by Spacewatch
Discovery site Kitt Peak
Discovery date April 11, 1996
Designations
MPC designation 65803
Alternate name(s) 1996 GT
Epoch May 14, 2008
Ap 2.275529407187443
Peri 1.013507501064536
Eccentricity .3837056078503029
Orbital period 770.2940688241576
Mean anomaly 55.0880972198178
Inclination 3.407885882310257
Longitude of ascending node 73.25524231473851
Argument of peri 319.2253550014718
Absolute magnitude (H) 17.952

65803 Didymos (1996 GT) is an Apollo asteroid discovered on April 11, 1996 by Spacewatch at Kitt Peak. It has a satellite orbiting it with a period of 11.9 hours, hence the appellation "Didymos", meaning "twin". The primary asteroid is about 800m in diameter, the satellite is about 150m in diameter in an orbit about 1.1 km from the primary. The rotation rate of Didymos is fast, 2.26 hours. Its density is 1.7 +/-0.4 g/cc. Didymos is the most easily reachable asteroid of its size from Earth, requiring a delta-v of only 5.1 km/s[1] for a spacecraft to rendezvous compared to 6.0 km/s to reach Earth's moon.

References

  1. ^ "Delta-v for spacecraft rendezvous with all known near-Earth asteroids". 2010. http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/~lance/delta_v/delta_v.rendezvous.html. Retrieved 2010-10-07. 

External links

(65802) 1996 BA3•65803 Didymos• (65804) 1996 HT6
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