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Icarus (minor planet 1566)


Orbit of Icarus
Orbit of Icarus on Jan. 1, 2009. Image source: Wikipedia
A member of the Apollo group of asteroids, discovered by Walter Baade in 1949. Its orbit carries it well within the orbit of Mercury, but not quite as close to the Sun as 2000 BD19 (0.09AU), 1995 CR (0.12 AU), or 3200 Phaethon (0.14 AU).

Icarus ranks fifth on the list of potentially hazardous objects, though it will not come within several million kilometers of Earth in the foreseeable future. During its last "near miss," on June 14, 1968, it approached us to within 6.5 million km – never a threat, but enough to have one cult retreating to a peak in Colorado to escape the anticipated slide of California into the Pacific.


diameter 1.4 km
spectral class U
rotational period 2.27 hours
semimajor axis 1.078 AU
perihelion 0.19 AU
aphelion 1.97 AU
eccentricity 0.827
inclination 22.9°
period 1.12 years


Related entry

   • Icarus, in mythology (Encyclopedia of History)


Related category

   • NOTABLE ASTEROIDS, CENTAURS, AND KUIPER BELT OBJECTS


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Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
Encyclopedia of History




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