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5335 Damocles
(5335) Damocles , provisional designation , is a centaur and the namesake of the damocloids, a group of minor planets which may be inactive nuclei of the Halley-type and long-period comets. It was discovered on 18 February 1991, by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. It is named after Damocles, a figure of Greek mythology. Description When Damocles was discovered, it was found to be on an orbit completely different from all others known. Damocles's orbit reached from inside the aphelion of Mars to as far as Uranus. It seemed to be in transition from a near-circular outer Solar System orbit to an eccentric orbit taking it to the inner Solar System. Duncan Steel, Gerhard Hahn, Mark Bailey, and David Asher carried out projections of its long-term dynamical evolution, and found a good probability that it will become an Earth-crosser asteroid, and may spend a quarter of its life in such an orbit. Damocles has a stable orbit for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damocles Symbol (bold)
Damocles is a character who appears in an ancient Greek anecdote commonly referred to as "the sword of Damocles", an allusion to the imminent and ever-present peril faced by those in positions of power. Damocles was a courtier in the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse, a ruler of Syracuse, Sicily, Magna Graecia, during the classical Greek era. The anecdote apparently figured in the lost history of Sicily by Timaeus of Tauromenium (). The Roman orator Cicero (), who may have read it in the texts of Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, used it in his ''Tusculanae Disputationes'', 5. 61, by which means it passed into the European cultural mainstream. Sword of Damocles According to the story, Damocles was flattering his king, Dionysius, exclaiming that Dionysius was truly fortunate as a great man of power and authority without peer, surrounded by magnificence. In response, Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles for one day so that Damocles could taste that fortune firsthand. D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
