Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/apollo-asteroids

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Apollo asteroid

Group of near-Earth asteroids


Group of near-Earth asteroids

The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth-crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth (a 1 AU) but perihelion distances less than the Earth's aphelion distance (q

, the number of known Apollo asteroids is 21,083, making the class the largest group of near-Earth objects (cf. the Aten, Amor and Atira asteroids), of which 1,742 are numbered (asteroids are not numbered until they have been observed at two or more oppositions), 81 are named, and 2,130 are identified as potentially hazardous asteroids.

The closer their semi-major axis is to Earth's, the less eccentricity is needed for the orbits to cross. The Chelyabinsk meteor, that exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals region of Russia on February 15, 2013, injuring an estimated 1,500 people with flying glass from broken windows, was an Apollo-class asteroid.

Apollo asteroids are generally named after Greek deities.

List

The largest known Apollo asteroid is 1866 Sisyphus, with a diameter of about 8.5 km. Examples of known Apollo asteroids include:

DesignationYearDiscoverer/First observed{{efnA discoverer is determined by the MPC when the object is numbered. For unnumbered bodies, the table gives the "first observer".Ref
2025Zwicky Transient Facility
2024ATLAS-SAAO
2019ATLAS-HKO
2016NEOWISE
2014CSS
2013CSS
2013CSS
2011LINEAR
2011CSS–Mount Lemmon Survey
2010LINEAR
2009CSS
2009Siding Spring Observatory, Australia
2008LINEAR
2008CSS
2008CSS–Mount Lemmon Survey
2007CSS
2007CSS
2007CSS
2007CSS–Mount Lemmon Survey
2006Spacewatch
2006LINEAR
2006Spacewatch
2005R. S. McMillan, Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak, USA
2005Mount Lemmon Survey
2005LONEOS
2004LINEAR
2004LINEAR
2004LINEAR
2004LINEAR
2003James Whitney Young
2003James Whitney Young
2002LINEAR
2002LINEAR
[54509 YORP](54509-yorp)2000LINEAR
[162173 Ryugu](162173-ryugu)1999LINEAR
1999LINEAR
[101955 Bennu](101955-bennu)1999LINEAR (Bennu is the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission)
1998Spacewatch
1997LINEAR
[65803 Didymos](65803-didymos)1996Spacewatch
[69230 Hermes](69230-hermes)1937Karl Reinmuth
1999LINEAR
1998LINEAR
1997Spacewatch
[25143 Itokawa](25143-itokawa)1998LINEAR
[(136617) 1994 CC](136617-1994-cc)1994Spacewatch
1996R. H. McNaught, Siding Spring Observatory, Australia
[6489 Golevka](6489-golevka)1991Eleanor F. Helin
[4769 Castalia](4769-castalia)1989Eleanor F. Helin
[4660 Nereus](4660-nereus)1982Eleanor F. Helin
[4581 Asclepius](4581-asclepius)1989Henry E. Holt, Norman G. Thomas
[4486 Mithra](4486-mithra)1987Eric Elst, Vladimir Shkodrov
[14827 Hypnos](14827-hypnos)1986Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Eugene Merle Shoemaker
[4197 Morpheus](4197-morpheus)1982Eleanor F. Helin, Eugene Merle Shoemaker
[4183 Cuno](4183-cuno)1959Cuno Hoffmeister
[4179 Toutatis](4179-toutatis)1989Christian Pollas
[4015 Wilson–Harrington](4015-wilson-harrington)1979Eleanor F. Helin
[3200 Phaethon](3200-phaethon)1983Simon F. Green, John K.Davies / IRAS
[2063 Bacchus](2063-bacchus)1977Charles T. Kowal
[1866 Sisyphus](1866-sisyphus)1972Paul Wild
[1620 Geographos](1620-geographos)1951Albert George Wilson, Rudolph Minkowski
[(29075) 1950 DA](29075-1950-da)1950Carl A. Wirtanen
[1566 Icarus](1566-icarus)1949Walter Baade
[1685 Toro](1685-toro)1948Carl A. Wirtanen
[2101 Adonis](2101-adonis)1936Eugène Joseph Delporte
[1862 Apollo](1862-apollo)1932Karl Reinmuth

References

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20020202160655/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/groups.html |url-status = dead |archive-date = 2 February 2002 |access-date= 11 November 2016}}

|access-date = 11 November 2016 |archive-date = 20 April 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190420144548/https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/02/26/meteor-russia-apollo-space/1948673/ |url-status = live

|access-date = 11 November 2016 |archive-date = 13 July 2024 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240713095516/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23213-russian-meteor-traced-to-apollo-asteroid-family/ |url-status = live

References

  1. "Small-Body Database Query". NASA – California Institute of Technology.
  2. "List of Apollo Minor Planets". Center for Astrophysics.
  3. Phait, Phil. (19 April 2021). "Apophis and Stargate". Bad Astronomy Newsletter.
  4. (2010). "The Spacewatch Project". Arizona Board of Regents.
  5. Weisstein. Eric. "Apollo Asteroid". Wolfram Research. link
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Apollo asteroid — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report