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Apollo asteroid

Group of near-Earth asteroids

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 (a 1 AU) but perihelion distances less than the Earth's aphelion distance (q

, the number of known Apollo asteroids is 21,083, making the class the largest group of near-Earth objects (cf. the Aten, Amor and Atira asteroids), of which 1,742 are numbered (asteroids are not numbered until they have been observed at two or more oppositions), 81 are named, and 2,130 are identified as potentially hazardous asteroids.

The closer their semi-major axis is to Earth's, the less eccentricity is needed for the orbits to cross. The Chelyabinsk meteor, that exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals region of Russia on February 15, 2013, injuring an estimated 1,500 people with flying glass from broken windows, was an Apollo-class asteroid.

Apollo asteroids are generally named after Greek deities.

List

The largest known Apollo asteroid is 1866 Sisyphus, with a diameter of about 8.5 km. Examples of known Apollo asteroids include:

Designation	Year	Discoverer/First observed{{efn
	2025	Zwicky Transient Facility
	2024	ATLAS-SAAO
	2019	ATLAS-HKO
	2016	NEOWISE
	2014	CSS
	2013	CSS
	2013	CSS
	2011	LINEAR
	2011	CSS–Mount Lemmon Survey
	2010	LINEAR
	2009	CSS
	2009	Siding Spring Observatory, Australia
	2008	LINEAR
	2008	CSS
	2008	CSS–Mount Lemmon Survey
	2007	CSS
	2007	CSS
	2007	CSS
	2007	CSS–Mount Lemmon Survey
	2006	Spacewatch
	2006	LINEAR
	2006	Spacewatch
	2005	R. S. McMillan, Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak, USA
	2005	Mount Lemmon Survey
	2005	LONEOS
	2004	LINEAR
	2004	LINEAR
	2004	LINEAR
	2004	LINEAR
	2003	James Whitney Young
	2003	James Whitney Young
	2002	LINEAR
	2002	LINEAR
54509 YORP	2000	LINEAR
162173 Ryugu	1999	LINEAR
	1999	LINEAR
101955 Bennu	1999	LINEAR (Bennu is the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission)
	1998	Spacewatch
	1997	LINEAR
65803 Didymos	1996	Spacewatch
69230 Hermes	1937	Karl Reinmuth
	1999	LINEAR
	1998	LINEAR
	1997	Spacewatch
25143 Itokawa	1998	LINEAR
(136617) 1994 CC	1994	Spacewatch
	1996	R. H. McNaught, Siding Spring Observatory, Australia
6489 Golevka	1991	Eleanor F. Helin
4769 Castalia	1989	Eleanor F. Helin
4660 Nereus	1982	Eleanor F. Helin
4581 Asclepius	1989	Henry E. Holt, Norman G. Thomas
4486 Mithra	1987	Eric Elst, Vladimir Shkodrov
14827 Hypnos	1986	Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Eugene Merle Shoemaker
4197 Morpheus	1982	Eleanor F. Helin, Eugene Merle Shoemaker
4183 Cuno	1959	Cuno Hoffmeister
4179 Toutatis	1989	Christian Pollas
4015 Wilson–Harrington	1979	Eleanor F. Helin
3200 Phaethon	1983	Simon F. Green, John K.Davies / IRAS
2063 Bacchus	1977	Charles T. Kowal
1866 Sisyphus	1972	Paul Wild
1620 Geographos	1951	Albert George Wilson, Rudolph Minkowski
(29075) 1950 DA	1950	Carl A. Wirtanen
1566 Icarus	1949	Walter Baade
1685 Toro	1948	Carl A. Wirtanen
2101 Adonis	1936	Eugène Joseph Delporte
1862 Apollo	1932	Karl Reinmuth

References

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20020202160655/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/groups.html |url-status = dead |archive-date = 2 February 2002 |access-date= 11 November 2016}}

|access-date = 11 November 2016 |archive-date = 20 April 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190420144548/https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/02/26/meteor-russia-apollo-space/1948673/ |url-status = live

|access-date = 11 November 2016 |archive-date = 13 July 2024 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240713095516/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23213-russian-meteor-traced-to-apollo-asteroid-family/ |url-status = live

References

"Small-Body Database Query". NASA – California Institute of Technology.
"List of Apollo Minor Planets". Center for Astrophysics.
Phait, Phil. (19 April 2021). "Apophis and Stargate". Bad Astronomy Newsletter.
(2010). "The Spacewatch Project". Arizona Board of Regents.
Weisstein. Eric. "Apollo Asteroid". Wolfram Research. link

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