1865 Cerberus is a stony

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

and

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

Apollo group Apollo Education Group, Inc. is an American corporation based in the South Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona, with an additional corporate office in Chicago, Illinois. The company owns and operates several higher-learning institutions, includin ...

, approximately 1.6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 October 1971, by Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek at the Hamburger Bergedorf Observatory, Germany, and given the provisional designation . It was named for

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus (; grc-gre, Κέρβερος ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring of the ...

from Greek mythology.

Orbit and classification

''Cerberus'' orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.6–1.6 AU once every 1 years and 1 month (410 days). Its orbit has an

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off- center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a ...

of 0.47 and an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 16 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic agai ...

. The

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 ...

has an ''Earth minimum orbital intersection distance'' of , which corresponds to 61 lunar distances. It passes within 30 gigametres ( Gm) of the Earth 7 times from the year 1900 to the year 2100, each time at a distance of 24.4 Gm to 25.7 Gm. It also makes close approaches to Mars and Venus.

Physical characteristics

In the

Tholen Tholen () is a 25,000 people Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southwest of the Netherlands. The municipality of Tholen takes its name from the town of Tholen, which is the largest population center in the municipality. The m ...

and SMASS taxonomy, ''Cerberus'' is a common stony

S-type asteroid S-type asteroids are asteroids with a spectral type that is indicative of a siliceous (i.e. stony) mineralogical composition, hence the name. They have relatively high density. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the secon ...

, composed of 65%

plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more pro ...

and 35%

pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...

. It has a

rotation period The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...

of 6.804 hours and a

geometric albedo In astronomy, the geometric albedo of a celestial body is the ratio of its actual brightness as seen from the light source (i.e. at zero phase angle) to that of an ''idealized'' flat, fully reflecting, diffusively scattering ( Lambertian) disk w ...

of 0.220. With a maximum lightcurve range of 2.3, Cerberus may be cigar shaped like 1I/Oumuamua.

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 '' ...

is named after the figure from Greek mythology,

, a three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades, the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld ...

. His capture marked the last of the twelve labors of Hercules. It is also the name of an extinct constellation, ''

'', now contained in the eastern part of Hercules. (It should not be confused with Kerberos, a moon of the dwarf planet Pluto.) The official was published 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 20 December 1974 ().

References

External links

''Les NEO (Near-Earth Objects)''
Michel-Alain Combes, (in French)
Astrosurf, names of NEAs
Les Noms des NEA – liste alphabétique (Excel spreadsheet in French)
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cerberus 001865 Discoveries by Luboš Kohoutek Named minor planets 001865 001865 19711026