 Highly inclined orbit of 2019 LF6 passing within Mercury's orbit, and slightly outside Venus's orbit | |
| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Zwicky Transient Facility |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 10 June 2019 (first observed only) |
| Designations | |
| 2019 LF6 | |
| NEO · Atira [1] | |
| Orbital characteristics [2] | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 3 | |
| Observation arc | 358 days |
| Aphelion | 0.7938 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.3170 AU |
| 0.5554 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.42928 |
| 0.41 yr (151.2 d) | |
| 347.653° | |
| 2° 22m 51.74s / day | |
| Inclination | 29.506° |
| 179.029° | |
| 213.779° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.2608 AU |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 1–2 km (est. at 0.05–0.15) | |
| 17.200±0.398 [2] | |
2019 LF6 is a near-Earth object of the Atira group. After 2021 PH27 , it has the second-smallest semi-major axis among the known asteroids (0.555 AU), beating the previously-held record of 2019 AQ3 . [3] [4] It orbits the Sun in 151 days. [2] Discovered at only 19th magnitude, it is very difficult to see, never getting far from the sun and twilight. [5] It only occasionally brightens above 16th magnitude. Discovery was made using the Zwicky Transient Facility. [6]
2019 LF6 orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.3–0.8 AU once every 5 months (151 days; semi-major axis of 0.56 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.43 and an unusually high [6] inclination of 30° with respect to the ecliptic. [2] The asteroids 594913 ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim and 2019 AQ3 are the only known asteroids with closer aphelions. The orbital evolution of 2019 AQ3 is similar to that of 2019 LF6. [7]
