3200 Phaethon

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3200 Phaethon

3200 Phaethon ( , sometimes incorrectly spelled Phaeton) is an Apollo asteroid

Apollo asteroid

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....
and an extinct comet

Comet

A comet is a Small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and, when close enough to the Sun, exhibits a visible coma or a tail?both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the Comet nucleus....
.

Simon F. Green

Simon F. Green

Dr. Simon F. Green is an astronomy. He is a Senior Lecturer in Planetary and Space Science at the Open University. He specializes in the study of asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects, and for a long time worked with the IRAS satellite to detect fast moving objects....
and John K. Davies, while searching Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS

IRAS

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite was the first-ever space-based observatory to perform a astronomical survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths....
) data for moving objects, discovered 3200 Phaethon (1983 TB) in images from October 11, 1983. It was announced on October 14 in IAUC 3878 along with optical confirmation by Charles T. Kowal

Charles T. Kowal

Charles Thomas Kowal is an American astronomer.He discovered two natural satellite of Jupiter : Leda in 1974 and Themisto in 1975, although the latter was lost and not rediscovered until 2000....
, who reported it to be asteroidal in appearance.

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Encyclopedia

3200 Phaethon ( , sometimes incorrectly spelled Phaeton) is an Apollo asteroid

Apollo asteroid

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....
and an extinct comet

Comet

Simon F. Green

IRAS

Charles T. Kowal

Diameter

In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle....
.

Phaethon's most remarkable distinction is that it approaches the Sun

Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
closer than any other numbered asteroid; its perihelion is only 0.140 AU

Astronomical unit

An astronomical unit is a unit of length based on the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun. The precise value of the AU is currently accepted as 149,597,870,691 Plus-minus sign 6 metres ....
— less than half Mercury

Mercury (planet)

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest Orbital eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt....
's perihelion distance. It is a Mercury-, Venus-

Venus-crosser asteroid

A Venus-crosser asteroid is an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Venus. The known numbered Venus-crossers and outer-grazers are listed below ....
, Earth-

Earth-crosser asteroid

An Earth-crosser asteroid is a Near-Earth asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Earth. The known numbered Earth-crossers are listed here. Those Earth-crossers whose semimajor axis are smaller than Earth's are Aten asteroids; the remaining ones are Apollo asteroids....
and Mars-crosser

Mars-crosser asteroid

A Mars-crosser asteroid is an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars. The known numbered Mars-crossers are listed here. They include the two numbered Martian Trojan asteroids: 5261 Eureka and ....
. The surface temperature at perihelion could reach ~1025 K, or 1400 F. For this reason, it was named after the Greek myth

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
of Phaëton

Phaeton

Phaeton, Pha?ton, Phaethon, or Pha?thon may refer to:*Pha?ton, in Greek mythology, either the son of Helios, the sun god; or son of Eos, the Dawn Goddess...
, son of the sun god Helios

Helios

Helios is the god of sun.In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios . Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn....
.

Phaethon's attributes can be argued as being cometary, except that Phaethon has never been observed exhibiting a coma, gas jets, or dust trail. However IAUC 3881 soon after discovery of 3200 Phaethon reported Fred Whipple's observation that "orbital elements of 1983 TB shown on IAUC 3879 are virtually coincident with the mean orbital elements of 19 Geminid meteors photographed with the super-Schmidt meteor cameras". Phaethon thus turned out to be the long-sought parent body of the Geminids

Geminids

The Geminids are a meteor shower caused by an object named 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be an extinct comet. The meteors from this shower can be seen in mid-December and usually peak around 12-14 of the month....
meteor shower

Meteor shower

Meteor showers, some of which are known as "meteor storms" , "meteor outbursts,"or "star storm are celestial events in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the sky....
of mid-December. It is classified as an Apollo asteroid

Apollo asteroid

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....
because of its orbital qualities, also much in common with comets and is also classified as a B-type asteroid

B-type asteroid

B-type asteroids are a relatively uncommon type of carbonaceous asteroid, falling into the wider C-type asteroid#C-group asteroids. In the asteroid population, B-class objects are abundant in the outer asteroid belt , and also dominate the high-inclination Pallas family which includes the second-largest asteroid 2 Pallas....
because it is composed of dark material; this too fits well with a cometary origin. There are several asteroid/comet mixed type objects now known, such as 133P/Elst-Pizarro

133P/Elst-Pizarro

Comet Elst-Pizarro is a remarkable body in that it displays characteristics of both asteroids and comets , and is the prototype of main-belt comets....
.

Phaethon approached to 18.1 Gm on December 10,2007. It will draw nearer in 2017, 2050, 2060, and closer still on December 14, 2093, passing within 0.0198 AU

Astronomical unit