List of Apollo asteroids Monday, June 22, 2009

The Apollo asteroid group (shown in green).

The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group to be discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth. They are Earth-crosser asteroids that have orbital semi-major axes greater than that of the Earth (> 1 AU) and a perihelion distance (q) < href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit" title="Astronomical unit">AU. Some can get very close to the Earth, making them a potential threat to our planet (the closer their semi-major axis is to Earth's, the less eccentricity is needed for the orbits to cross).

The largest known Apollo asteroid is 1866 Sisyphus, with a diameter of about 10 km.

Well-known Apollo asteroids include:

Name Year Discoverer
2008 TC3 2008 Catalina Sky Survey
2007 TU24 2007 Catalina Sky Survey
2007 WD5 2007 Catalina Sky Survey
2006 FV35 2006 Spacewatch
2006 SU49 2006 Spacewatch
2004 XP14 2004 LINEAR
2004 AS1 2004 LINEAR
2002 TD66 2002 LINEAR
(137108) 1999 AN10 1999 LINEAR
1998 KY26 1998 Spacewatch
1997 XR2 1997 LINEAR
69230 Hermes 1937 Karl Reinmuth
(53319) 1999 JM8 1999 LINEAR
(52760) 1998 ML14 1998 LINEAR
(35396) 1997 XF11 1997 Spacewatch
(29075) 1950 DA 1950 Carl A. Wirtanen
25143 Itokawa 1998 LINEAR
6489 Golevka 1991 Eleanor F. Helin
4769 Castalia 1989 Eleanor F. Helin
4660 Nereus 1982 Eleanor F. Helin
4581 Asclepius 1989 Henry E. Holt, Norman G. Thomas
4486 Mithra 1987 Eric Elst, Vladimir Shkodrov
(4197) 1982 TA 1982 Eleanor F. Helin, Eugene Shoemaker
4183 Cuno 1959 Cuno Hoffmeister
4179 Toutatis 1989 Christian Pollas
4015 Wilson-Harrington 1979 Eleanor F. Helin
3200 Phaethon 1983 Simon F. Green, John K. Davies / IRAS
2101 Adonis 1936 Eugène Joseph Delporte
2063 Bacchus 1977 Charles T. Kowal
1866 Sisyphus 1972 Paul Wild
1862 Apollo 1932 Karl Reinmuth
1685 Toro 1948 Carl A. Wirtanen
1620 Geographos 1951 Albert George Wilson, Rudolph Minkowski
1566 Icarus 1949 Walter Baade

See also

External links

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