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Apohele asteroid


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 (farthest point from the Sun) smaller than Earth's perihelion (nearest point to the Sun), which is 0.983 astronomical units (AU). Atira asteroids are by far the smallest group of near-Earth objects, compared to the Aten, Apollo and Amor asteroids.

The first suspected Apohele was 1998 DK36, and the first confirmed was 163693 Atira in 2003. There are 16 suspected Apoheles, of which eight have well-known orbits, of which five have been determined with sufficient precision to receive a permanent number (see § List below). An additional 28 objects (not listed) have aphelia smaller than Earth's aphelion (1.017 AU). The Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite is intended to find more.

In great part because of the search methods used to look for asteroids, there are currently no known asteroids with orbits contained within Venus or Mercury's (e.g. vulcanoids).

There is no standard name for the class. The name Apohele was proposed by the discoverers of 1998 DK36, and is the Hawaiian word for orbit; it was chosen partially because of its similarity to the words aphelion (apoapsis) and helios. Other authors adopted the designation Inner Earth Objects (IEOs). Still others, following the general practice to name a new class of asteroids for the first recognized member of that class, use the designation Atira asteroids.


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