2102 Tantalus (1975 YA) is an Apollo asteroid discovered on December 27, 1975, by C. Kowal at Palomar Observatory.[1] It is a Q-type asteroid.[1]
2102 Tantalus is a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) because its minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is less than 0.05 AU and its diameter is greater than 150 meters. The Earth-MOID is 0.0439 AU (6,570,000 km; 4,080,000 mi).[1] Its orbit is well-determined for the next several hundred years.
It will pass 0.04439 AU (6,641,000 km; 4,126,000 mi) from Earth on 2038-Dec-27, which is just slightly closer than the 1975-Dec-26 approach of 0.046 AU.[1] The asteroid is about 2–4 km in diameter.[2]
The shape of 2102 Tantalus is estimated to be roughly spherical in outline and fairly symmetrical; the surface is thought to be covered in a fine-grained regolith.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 2102 Tantalus". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ a b "Absolute Magnitude (H)". NASA/JPL. Archived from the original on 2 March 2001. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
- ^ Rożek, Agata; Lowry, Stephen C.; Rozitis, Benjamin; Dover, Lord R.; Taylor, Patrick A.; Virkki, Anne; Green, Simon F.; Snodgrass, Colin; Fitzsimmons, Alan; Campbell-White, Justyn; Sajadian, Sedighe; Bozza, Valerio; Burgdorf, Martin J.; Dominik, Martin; Figuera Jaimes, R.; Hinse, Tobias C.; Hundertmark, Markus; Jørgensen, Uffe G.; Longa-Peña, Penélope; Rabus, Markus; Rahvar, Sohrab; Skottfelt, Jesper; Southworth, John (2022). "Physical properties of near-Earth asteroid (2102) Tantalus from multiwavelength observations". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 515 (3): 4551–4564. arXiv:2206.14306. doi:10.1093/mnras/stac1835.
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