(6178) 1986 DA

Orbit and classification

As an eccentric Amor asteroid has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance of 0.1922 AU and approaches the orbit of Earth from the outside but does not cross it. It crosses however the orbit of Mars and can be classified as a Mars-crosser and also approaches the orbit of Jupiter within 0.5 AU. The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.2–4.5 AU once every 4 years and 9 months (1,732 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.58 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Siding Spring Observatory in 1977, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 9 years prior to its discovery.

Physical characteristics

The metallic M-type asteroid is notable for being significantly more radar-reflective than other asteroids. Radar measurements suggest it is composed of nickel and iron and that it was derived from the center of a much larger object that experienced melting and differentiation. The observed radar albedo was 0.58 and the optical albedo was 0.14.

Rotation and shape

It was most probably formed from a larger body through a catastrophic collision with another object. Radar measurements of this body indicate that the surface is relatively smooth on scales of less than a meter, but it is highly irregular on scales of 10–100 meters. Several lightcurve analysis gave it a concurring rotation period of 3.50 to 3.51 hours with a relatively high brightness amplitude between 0.03 and 0.48 in magnitude, indicating an irregular shape ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid has an albedo of 0.08 and 0.16, and a diameter of 3.1 to 3.2 kilometers, respectively. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link selects 3.15 kilometers as best result, while the first estimate from 1994 gave a diameter of 2.3 kilometers.

Mining considerations

The asteroid achieved its most notable recognition when scientists revealed that it contained over "10,000 tons of gold and 100,000 tons of platinum", or an approximate value at the time of its discovery of "$90 billion for the gold and a cool trillion dollars for the platinum, plus loose change for the asteroid's 10 billion tons of iron and a billion tons of nickel." In 2024 the estimated value of 100,000 tons of platinum was worth approximately 3.4 trillion US dollars. The delta-v for a spacecraft rendezvous with this asteroid from low Earth orbit is 7.1 km/s.

Notes

References

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References

1. "Near-Earth Metal Asteroid Discovered".