2212 Hephaistos (1978 SB) is an

Apollo asteroid The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth-crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth ...

and a NEO discovered on 27 September 1978 by L. I. Chernykh at the

Crimean Astrophysical Observatory The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO, List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#095, 095) is located at Nauchnij research campus, near the Central Crimean city of Bakhchysarai, on the Crimean peninsula. CrAO is often called ...

. It is named after the

Greek god The following is a list of gods, goddesses, and many other divine and semi-divine figures from ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion. Immortals The Greeks created images of their deities for many purposes. A temple would house the ...

Hephaestus Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter Burk ...

. It is the largest member of the Hephaistos asteroid group. It makes close approaches to all of the inner planets and will pass from

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 ...

on 2032-Sep-16. Other potential members of the Hephaistos group include (85182) 1991 AQ, 4486 Mithra, and D/1766 G1 (Helfenzrieder).

References

External links

* * * 002212 Discoveries by Lyudmila Chernykh Named minor planets 002212 19780927 {{NE-asteroid-stub