2007 MK6

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2007 MK6
Discovery [1] [a]
Discovery date27 May 2006 (First reported obs.)
Designations
2007 MK6
2006 KT67
NEO  · Apollo
Orbital characteristics [2]
Epoch 21 November 2025 (JD 2461000.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Aphelion 1.9661 AU
Perihelion 0.1959 AU
1.0810 AU
Eccentricity 0.8188
180.477°
0.8769° / d
Inclination 25.1246°
92.846°
25.514°
Earth  MOID 0.0869 AU
TJupiter 5.287
Physical characteristics
180 m (calculated) [3] : 189 
0.40 (assumed) [3] : 189 
20.18 [2]

    2007 MK6 is a small, unnamed near-Earth asteroid on a highly eccentric orbit. First reported on 27 May 2006 by Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, United States, it was lost until it was recovered a year later by Catalina Sky Survey. It forms an asteroid pair with 1566 Icarus, and the two share similar orbital elements, having likely separated within the past 10 million years.

    Contents

    History

    2007 MK6 was first detected on 27 May 2006 by Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, United States. [1] It was given the provisional designation 2006 KT67 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), and its detection was announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular (MPEC) that same day. [4] Observations extended one day earlier to 26 May, but with a single-day observation arc the asteroid became lost. [1]

    On 21 June 2007, the asteroid was recovered by Catalina Sky Survey, and its detection was announced in an MPEC on 23 June. At that time it was not recognized as the same object observed by Mount Lemmon in 2006, and it was given a different provisional designation 2007 MK6. [5] Soon after, a team of astronomers led by Katsuhito Ohtsuka linked 2007 MK6 with 2006 KT67, and the identification was released in an MPEC on 28 June. [6] 2007 MK6 remains its primary provisional designation. [2]

    As of 2025, the asteroid has not been numbered or named by the MPC. It also has not been formally assigned a discoverer, which will happen once it is numbered. [1]

    Orbit

    A diagram of 2007 MK6's highly eccentric orbit in the inner Solar System. 2007 MK6 orbit.png
    A diagram of 2007 MK6's highly eccentric orbit in the inner Solar System.

    2007 MK6 is classified as a near-Earth asteroid (NEA), orbiting the Sun at an average distance—its semi-major axis—of 1.08 astronomical units (AU). Due to its high eccentricity of 0.82, its distance from the Sun varies greatly. At perihelion, it comes within 0.20 AU, closer than Mercury's orbit. [2] [7] At aphelion, it moves as far as 1.97 AU. [2] Since it crosses Earth's orbit and has a semi-major axis greater than 1 AU, it is also classified as an Apollo asteroid. [8] It takes 1.12 years to complete one revolution around the Sun, and its orbit is inclined by 25.12° with respect to the ecliptic plane. [2]

    Relation to 1566 Icarus

    2007 MK6 forms an asteroid pair with another NEA, 1566 Icarus. Icarus is a 1.44 kilometres (0.89 mi) sized NEA on a highly eccentric orbit, [9] : 12  and its orbital properties are similar to those of 2007 MK6. The pair was identified in a 2007 study led by Ohtsuka after surveying NEAs for a potential relation to Icarus. [10] : 1  Although the two occasionally encounter Earth and Venus, the effects on their orbits are small enough to maintain a relatively stable secular evolution of their orbital elements. The time of separation of the two asteroids is unknown, but Icarus's classification as a Q-type asteroid, which tend to weather rapidly, placing a maximum age of 10 million years (Myr). The parent object of the two asteroids was likely injected into the inner Solar System around that time. [10] : 3–4 

    Icarus's rapid rotation period of 2.27 hours lies near the roughly 2.2 hour spin barrier, [9] : 3  [3] : 198  below which a strengthless rubble pile asteroid would self-destruct due to the centrifugal force. [11] : 4240  This implies that 2007 MK6 may have fissioned from Icarus as long as the parent body was a weakly-bound rubble pile, as is common for kilometer-sized asteroids. [3] : 198  Thermal stress could have contributed to the breakup of the pair's parent body, as its very low perihelion would lead to temperatures reaching 527 °C (800 K) at the subsolar point. [10] : 1 

    Physical characteristics

    Assuming 2007 MK6 has a geometric albedo similar to Icarus's, it is estimated to be 180 metres (590 ft) in size and no greater than several hundred meters in size. [3] : 196  [10] : 3 

    See also

    Other NEA groups:

    Notes

    1. ↑ Discoverer not yet assigned by the MPC

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 "2007 MK6 = 2006 KT67". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 13 November 2025. (424 obs)
    2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "JPL Small-Body Database Lookup: (2007 MK6)" (2025-07-01 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 13 November 2025.
    3. 1 2 3 4 5 Kasuga, Toshihiro; Jewitt, David (October 2019). "8 – Asteroid–Meteoroid Complexes". In Ryabova, Galina O.; Asher, David J.; Campbell-Brown, Margaret D. (eds.). Meteoroids. Cambridge University Press. arXiv: 2010.16079 . Bibcode:2019msme.book..187K. doi:10.1017/9781108606462.015. ISBN   9781108606462.
    4. ↑ Minor Planet Center Staff (27 May 2006). "MPEC 2006-K62 : 2006 KT67". Minor Planet Electronic Circular. 2006-K62. Minor Planet Center. Bibcode:2006MPEC....K...62C . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
    5. ↑ Minor Planet Center Staff (23 June 2007). "MPEC 2007-M32 : 2007 MK6". Minor Planet Electronic Circular. 2007-M32. Minor Planet Center. Bibcode:2007MPEC....M...32F . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
    6. ↑ Minor Planet Center Staff (28 June 2007). "MPEC 2007-M49 : 2007 MK6 = 2006 KT67". Minor Planet Electronic Circular. 2007-M49. Minor Planet Center. Bibcode:2007MPEC....M...49O . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
    7. ↑ Williams, David R. (25 November 2020). "Mercury Fact Sheet". NASA. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
    8. ↑ "NEO Groups". NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office. Archived from the original on 2 February 2002. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
    9. 1 2 Greenberg, Adam H.; Margot, Jean-Luc; Verma, Ashok K.; Taylor, Patrick A.; Naidu, Shantanu P.; Brozovic, Marina.; et al. (March 2017). "Asteroid 1566 Icarus's Size, Shape, Orbit, and Yarkovsky Drift from Radar Observations". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (3): 16. arXiv: 1612.07434 . Bibcode:2017AJ....153..108G. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/108 . S2CID   28388555.
    10. 1 2 3 4 Ohtsuka, K.; Arakida, H.; Ito, T.; Kasuga, T.; Watanabe, J.; Kinoshita, D.; Sekiguchi, T.; Ahser, D. J.; Nakano, S. (October 2007). "Apollo Asteroids 1566 Icarus and 2007 MK6: Icarus Family Members?". Icarus. 668 (1): L71 –L74. arXiv: 0708.2825 . Bibcode:2007ApJ...668L..71O. doi:10.1086/522589.
    11. ↑ Pereira, W.; et al. (6 October 2025). "Photometric characterization of near-Earth objects from OASI and CASLEO observations". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 543 (4): 4235–4253. doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf1701 .
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