2012 XE133

Discovery, orbit and physical properties

was first observed on 12 December 2012 by J. A. Johnson working for the Catalina Sky Survey. As of January 2026, it has been observed 180 times with a data-arc span of about 8 years. It is an Aten asteroid and its semi-major axis of 0.72 AU is very similar to that of Venus but its eccentricity is rather large (0.4332) and its inclination of 6.7° is also significant. With an absolute magnitude of 23.4, it has a diameter of approximately 62 to 138 meters. On 26 November 2020, 2012 XE133 was recovered and now has a well established orbit with an uncertainty parameter of 0. The asteroid often makes close approaches to Earth within 0.05 AU, and the next close approach will occur on 30 December 2028, approaching Earth at 0.0099 AU (and the Moon at 0.0080 AU)

Quasi-satellite dynamical state and orbital evolution

has been identified as a Venus co-orbital following a transitional path between Venus's Lagrangian points and . Besides being a Venus co-orbital, this asteroid is also a Mercury grazer and an Earth crosser. exhibits resonant (or near-resonant) behavior with Mercury, Venus and the Earth. Its short-term dynamical evolution is similar to that of two other Venus co-orbitals, and .

Notes

• This is assuming an albedo of 0.25–0.05.

References

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;Further reading

• Understanding the Distribution of Near-Earth Asteroids Bottke, W. F., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Petit, J.-M., Gladman, B. 2000, Science, Vol. 288, Issue 5474, pp. 2190–2194.
• A Numerical Survey of Transient Co-orbitals of the Terrestrial Planets Christou, A. A. 2000, Icarus, Vol. 144, Issue 1, pp. 1–20.
• Debiased Orbital and Absolute Magnitude Distribution of the Near-Earth Objects Bottke, W. F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H. F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T. S. 2002, Icarus, Vol. 156, Issue 2, pp. 399–433.
• Transient co-orbital asteroids Brasser, R., Innanen, K. A., Connors, M., Veillet, C., Wiegert, P., Mikkola, S., Chodas, P. W. 2004, Icarus, Vol. 171, Issue 1, pp. 102–109.
• The population of Near Earth Asteroids in coorbital motion with Venus Morais, M. H. M., Morbidelli, A. 2006, Icarus, Vol. 185, Issue 1, pp. 29–38.
• Asteroid 2012 XE133: a transient companion to Venus de la Fuente Marcos, C., de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2013, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 432, Issue 2, pp. 886–893.
• AstDys-2 on 2012 XE133 Retrieved 2013-02-20

References

1. [https://archive.today/20121205013441/http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/lists/Atens.html List Of Aten Minor Planets]
2. "MPEC 2020-W187 : 2012 XE133".
3. "IAU Minor Planet Center".
4. (15 April 2021). "Small-Body Database Lookup".
5. "2012 XE133".
6. (2013). "Asteroid 2012 XE133, a transient companion to Venus". [[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]].