3671 Dionysus

3671 Dionysus

Orbit of 3671 Dionysus
Discovery and designation
Discovered by	Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker
Discovery site	Palomar Observatory
Discovery date	May 27, 1984
Designations
MPC designation	3671
Named after	Dionysus
Alternative names	1984 KD[1]
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch August 27, 2011 (JD 2455800.5
Aphelion	3.389130075 AU
Perihelion	1.00645923 AU
Semi-major axis	2.197794652 AU
Eccentricity	0.54205947
Orbital period	3.258283510 yr (1190.088052 d)
Mean anomaly	120.239711°
Inclination	13.547627°
Longitude of ascending node	82.15874°
Argument of perihelion	204.23906°
Known satellites	1
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	1.5 km[1]
Mean density	1.6 g/cm3[2]
Sidereal rotation period	2.7053 h[1]
Geometric albedo	0.16[1]
Spectral type	B[1]
Absolute magnitude (H)	16.3[1]

3671 Dionysus is a small binary Amor asteroid, orbiting between the Earth and the asteroid belt. It was 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. It is an outer Earth grazer because its perihelion is just within Earth's orbit.

Near-Earth object

Dionysus makes many close approaches to Earth. Its closest approach so far occurred in 1984, when Dionysus passed just 0.03047 astronomical units (4,558,000 km) from Earth.^[1] Dionysus is expected to continue to make close approaches.

Moon

In 1997, a team of astronomers at the European Southern Observatory announced that lightcurve observations indicate the presence of a small moon orbiting Dionysus. Its provisional designation is S/1997 (3671) 1. This moon measures 300 meters in diameter, and orbits 3.6km from Dionysus with an eccentricity of 0.07 and an orbital period of 27.72 hours.^[3] From the surface of Dionysus, S/1997 (3671) 1 would have an apparent diameter of roughly 3.02 degrees.^{[lower-alpha 1]} For comparison, the Sun appears to be 0.5° from Earth.

Notes

References