2101 Adonis
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | E. Delporte |
| Discovery site | Uccle Obs. |
| Discovery date | 12 February 1936 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | 2101 Adonis |
|
Named after
|
Adonis (Greek mythology) |
| 1936 CA | |
| Apollo · NEO · PHA | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 77.08 yr (28,154 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.3071 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.4412 AU |
| 1.8741 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.7646 |
| 2.57 yr (937 days) | |
| 235.16° | |
| 0° 23m 3.12s / day | |
| Inclination | 1.3264° |
| 349.69° | |
| 43.388° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.0116 AU |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions |
0.5–1.2 km (assumed) 0.6 km (Gehrels est.) |
| 18.8 | |
2101 Adonis, provisional designation 1936 CA, is an extremely eccentric asteroid, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid. It belongs to the group of Apollo asteroids and measures approximately 1 kilometer in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 12 February 1936, by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle. It may also be an extinct comet and a source of meteor showers.
It was one of the first near-Earth asteroids ever to be discovered. Adonis was also the second known Apollo asteroid after 1862 Apollo, the group's namesake discovered four years earlier in 1932. After the initial discovery of Adonis, which happened during a close approach with Earth in 1936, the asteroid was observed for two months, before it became a lost asteroid, as not enough observations could be made to calculate a sufficiently accurate orbit. It took 41 years until it was finally rediscovered by the American astronomer Charles Kowal in 1977.
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.4–3.3 AU once every 2 years and 7 months (937 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.76 and an inclination of 1° with respect to the ecliptic. It is a potentially hazardous asteroid because its minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is less than 0.05 AU and its diameter is greater than 150 meters. The Earth-MOID is 0.0117 AU (1,750,000 km). The asteroid's orbit is well-determined for the next several hundred years. It also makes close approaches to Venus and Mars and comes within 30 Gm of the Earth six times in the 21st century, the nearest being 0.03569 AU (5,339,000 km) on 7 February 2036.
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