1566 Icarus
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Discovery
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| Discovered by | Walter Baade |
| Discovery date | June 27, 1949 |
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Designations
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| Named after | Icarus |
| Alternate name(s) | 1949 MA |
| Minor planet category |
Apollo asteroid, Mercury-crosser asteroid, Venus-crosser asteroid, Mars-crosser asteroid |
| Epoch August 27, 2011 (JD 2455800.5) | |
| Aphelion | 1.9691548727 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.18665203 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 1.0779034528 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.82683789 |
| Orbital period | 1.1191234523 a (408.7598409 d) |
| Mean anomaly | 254.29362° |
| Inclination | 22.82825° |
| Longitude of ascending node | 88.027986° |
| Argument of perihelion | 31.350320° |
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Physical characteristics
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| Dimensions | 1.4 km |
| Mass | 2.9×1012 kg |
| Mean density | 2 ? g/cm³ |
| Equatorial surface gravity | 0.000 39 m/s² |
| Escape velocity | 0.000 74 km/s |
| Rotation period | 0.094 71 d |
| Albedo | 0.4[2] |
| Temperature | ~242 K |
| Spectral type | U[citation needed] |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 16.9 |
1566 Icarus (
/ˈɪkərəs/ IK-ə-rəs) is an Apollo asteroid (a sub-class of near-Earth asteroid) that at perihelion comes closer to the Sun than Mercury, i.e. it is a Mercury-crossing asteroid. It is also a Venus and Mars-crosser. It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun. It was discovered in 1949 by Walter Baade.
Icarus makes a close approach to Earth at gaps of 9, 19, or 38 years. Rarely, it comes as close as 6.4 Gm (16 lunar distances and 4 million miles), as it did on June 14, 1968. During this approach, Icarus became the first minor planet to be observed using radar, with measurements being performed from the Goldstone Tracking Station.[3] As of 2012, the last close approach was in 1996, at 15.1 Gm, almost 40 times as far as the Moon.[1] The next close approach will be June 16, 2015, at 8.1 Gm (5 million miles).
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[edit] Project Icarus
In the spring of 1967, Professor Paul Sandorff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave his students in a systems engineering class the task to devise a plan to destroy Icarus in the case that it was on a collision course with Earth. This plan is known as Project Icarus. Time magazine ran an article on the endeavor in June 1967[4] and the following year the student report was published as a book.[5][6][7] This report was the basis and inspiration for the 1979 science fiction film Meteor.[7][8]
[edit] Icarus in fiction
[edit] References
- ^ a b JPL Data Retrieved 2011-09-02
- ^ Radiometry of near-earth asteroids
- ^ Goldstein, R. M. (November 22, 1968), "Radar Observations of Icarus", Science 162 (3856): 903–904, doi:10.1126/science.162.3856.903
- ^ "Systems Engineering: Avoiding an Asteroid", Time Magazine, June 16, 1967.
- ^ Kleiman Louis A., Project Icarus: an MIT Student Project in Systems Engineering, Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press, 1968
- ^ Project Icarus, MIT Report No. 13, MIT Press 1968, edited by Louis A. Kleiman. "Interdepartmental Student Project in Systems Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Spring Term, 1967"; reissued 1979.
- ^ a b Day, Dwayne A., "Giant bombs on giant rockets: Project Icarus", The Space Review, Monday, July 5, 2004
- ^ "MIT Course precept for movie", The Tech, MIT, October 30, 1979
[edit] External links
- NeoDys Object Listing: orbital elements and list of close approaches
- Article on TheSpaceReview.com about Project Icarus
[edit] See also
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