is a stony

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

of the Aten group on a highly-eccentric orbit. The synchronous

binary system A binary system is a system of two astronomical bodies which are close enough that their gravitational attraction causes them to orbit each other around a barycenter ''(also see animated examples)''. More restrictive definitions require that thi ...

measures approximately in diameter. It was discovered by astronomers of the

Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research The Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project is a collaboration of the United States Air Force, NASA, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory for the systematic detection and tracking of near-Earth objects ...

at the

Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...

near Socorro, New Mexico, on 14 September 1998. Its

minor-planet moon A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. , there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are important ...

, provisionally designated , was discovered in September 2003. It has an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

of 14.53 hours and measures approximately 48% of its primary, or 380 meters. It is one of seven known Aten binaries as of 2017.

Interaction with Earth

's orbit is very eccentric, with an

aphelion An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

beyond the orbit of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

and a perihelion inside the orbit of

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

. It has an

of 360.29 days (0.99 years) and makes close approaches to Earth. But makes closer approaches to other inner planets, especially Mars. Its closest approach to a planet between 1950–2200 was to Mars, as it passed from Mars on 18 March 1964, and will pass from Mars on 12 October 2065.

Moon

has one moon, . This moon was discovered from lightcurve observations going from 13 to 28 September 2013, and was confirmed by radar observations from the

Arecibo Observatory The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science F ...

one year later. It is in a very close orbit to , with a semi-major axis of and an eccentricity of 0.06, giving it a periapsis of and an apoapsis of . takes 14.54 hours to complete one orbit around . From the surface of , would have an apparent diameter of roughly 41°. For comparison, the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

appears to be 0.5° from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. The secondary orbits its primary in a manner very similar to the adjunct image, where the red cross is the center of mass.

Numbering and naming

This

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

was numbered by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

on 10 September 2003. As of 2018, it has not been named.

Notes

References

External links

Binary and Ternary Near-Earth Asteroids Detected by Radar
Lance Benner, JPL

Robert Johnston, johnstonsarchive.net
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:1998 RO1 066063 066063 066063 066063 066063 066063 066063 066063 19980914