![]() 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 | |
Mean diameter | 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]
It 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]
Atira asteroids or Apohele asteroids, also known as interior-Earth objects (IEOs), are asteroids whose orbits are entirely confined within Earth's orbit; that is, their orbit has an aphelion smaller than Earth's perihelion, which is 0.983 astronomical units (AU). Atira asteroids are by far the least numerous group of near-Earth objects, compared to the more populous Aten, Apollo and Amor asteroids.
163693 Atira, provisional designation 2003 CP20, is a stony asteroid, dwelling in the interior of Earth's orbit. It is classified as a near-Earth object. Atira is a binary asteroid, a system of two asteroids orbiting their common barycenter. The primary component with a diameter of approximately 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) is orbited by a minor-planet moon that measures about 1 km (0.6 mi). Atira was discovered on 11 February 2003, by astronomers with the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico, in the United States.
2013 BS45 (also written 2013 BS45) is a horseshoe companion to the Earth like 3753 Cruithne. Like Cruithne, it does not orbit the Earth in the normal sense and at times it is on the other side of the Sun, yet it still periodically comes nearer to the Earth in sort of halo orbit before again drifting away. While not a traditional natural satellite, it does not quite have normal heliocentric orbit either and these are sometimes called quasi-satellties or horseshoe orbits.
2011 EO40 is an asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object and a potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group. It is a possible candidate for the parent body of the Chelyabinsk superbolide.
2014 OL339 (also written 2014 OL339) is an Aten asteroid that is a temporary quasi-satellite of Earth, the fourth known Earth quasi-satellite.
2013 RF98 is a trans-Neptunian object. It was discovered on September 12, 2013, at Cerro Tololo-DECam.
2017 DR109, is a micro-asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Apollo group and Aten group, respectively. It is currently trapped in a 1:1 mean motion resonance with the Earth of the horseshoe type. The object was first observed on 27 February 2017, by astronomers of the Catalina Sky Survey conducted at Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, United States.
2017 SN16, is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately 90 meters (300 feet) in diameter. The object was first observed on 24 September 2017, by cometary discoverer Alex Gibbs with the Mount Lemmon Survey at Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, in the United States. It forms an asteroid pair with 2018 RY7 and is currently trapped in a 3:5 mean motion resonance with Venus.
2018 RY7, is a small near-Earth object of the Apollo group. It is currently trapped in a 3:5 mean motion resonance with Venus. The object was first observed on 14 September 2018, by astronomer B. M. Africano with the Mount Lemmon Survey at Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, United States.
2019 AQ3 is an inclined near-Earth object of the small Atira group from the innermost region of the Solar System, estimated to measure 1.4 kilometers (0.9 miles) in diameter. Among the hundreds of thousands known asteroids, 2019 AQ3's orbit was thought to have likely the smallest semi-major axis (0.589 AU) and aphelion (0.77 AU), that is, the orbit's average distance and farthest point from the Sun, respectively. The object was first observed on 4 January 2019, by astronomers at Palomar's Zwicky Transient Facility in California, with recovered images dating back to 2015.
594913 ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim (provisional designation 2020 AV2) is a large near-Earth asteroid discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility on 4 January 2020. It is the first asteroid discovered to have an orbit completely within Venus's orbit, and is thus the first and only known member of the eponymous ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim (informally named Vatira before its discovery) population of Atira-class asteroids. ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim has the smallest known aphelion and third-smallest known semi-major axis among all asteroids. With an absolute magnitude approximately 16.2, the asteroid is expected to be larger than 1 km in diameter.
2020 HA10 is a near-Earth object of the Atira group.
2018 EC4 is a small asteroid and Mars trojan orbiting near the L5 point of Mars (60 degrees behind Mars on its orbit).
2016 CP31 is a small asteroid and Mars trojan orbiting near the L5 point of Mars (60 degrees behind Mars on its orbit).
2020 PN1 is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object of the Aten group, that is a temporary horseshoe companion to the Earth. There are dozens of known Earth horseshoe librators, some of which switch periodically between the quasi-satellite and the horseshoe co-orbital states.
2020 PP1 is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group, that is a temporary quasi-satellite of the Earth. There are over a dozen known Earth quasi-satellites, some of which switch periodically between the quasi-satellite and horseshoe co-orbital states.
2009 SH2 is a sub-kilometer near-Earth asteroid of the Aten group, discovered by the Siding Spring Survey at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia on 18 September 2009. It is in a co-orbital configuration with Earth, a type of 1:1 orbital resonance where the asteroid appears to librate around Earth's path in a horseshoe orbit when viewed in a corotating reference frame with Earth. The co-orbital state of 2009 SH2 is only temporary as it has entered it about 30 years ago and will leave it in about 100 years into the future.
2021 PH27 is a near-Earth asteroid of the Atira group. It was discovered by Scott Sheppard using the Dark Energy Survey's DECam imager at NOIRLab's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory on 13 August 2021. 2021 PH27 has the smallest semi-major axis and shortest orbital period among all known asteroids as of 2021, with a velocity at perihelion of 106 km/s (240,000 mph). It also has the largest value of the relativistic perihelion shift, 1.6 times that of Mercury. With an absolute magnitude of 17.7, the asteroid is estimated to be larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter.
2015 DR215 is a stony near-Earth asteroid of the Atira class residing within Earth's orbit. It was discovered on 18 February 2015 by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey at Haleakalā Observatory at Maui, Hawaiʻi. The asteroid has a diameter of about 200 m (660 ft) and makes close approaches within 0.05 AU (7.5 million km; 4.6 million mi) of Earth, making it a potentially hazardous object. On 11 March 2022, it made a close approach 0.045 AU (6.7 million km; 4.2 million mi) from Earth, reaching a peak apparent magnitude of 17 as it streaked across the southern sky.
2023 WK3 is a near-Earth object of the Atira group.