5335 Damocles
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | R. H. McNaught |
| Discovery site | Siding Spring Obs. |
| Discovery date | 18 February 1991 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | (5335) Damocles |
| Pronunciation | DAM-ə-kleez (/ˈdæməkliːz/) |
|
Named after
|
Damocles (Greek mythology) |
| 1991 DA | |
| distant · centaur · damocloid | |
| Adjectives | Damoclean (/dæməˈkliːən/) |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 4 | |
| Observation arc | 1.51 yr (551 days) |
| Aphelion | 22.080 AU |
| Perihelion | 1.5725 AU |
| 11.826 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.8670 |
| 40.67 yr (14,854 days) | |
| 231.53° | |
| 0° 1m 27.12s / day | |
| Inclination | 61.941° |
| 314.16° | |
| 191.25° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.5971 AU |
| Mars MOID | 0.05787 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 3.5831 AU |
| Jupiter Tisserand parameter | 1.147 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | ~ 10 km |
| 10.2 h | |
| S | |
| 26.9 | |
| 13.3 | |
5335 Damocles (DAM-ə-kleez) provisional designation 1991 DA, is a centauer and the namesake of the damocloids, a group of minor planets which are inactive nuclei of the Halley-type and long-period comets. It was discovered on 18 February 1991, by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. It is named after Damocles, a figure of Greek mythology.
When Damocles was discovered, it was found to be on an orbit completely different from all others known. Damocles's orbit reached from inside the aphelion of Mars to as far as Uranus. It seemed to be in transition from a near-circular outer Solar System orbit to an eccentric orbit taking it to the inner Solar System.Duncan Steel, Gerhard Hahn, Mark Bailey, and David Asher carried out projections of its long-term dynamical evolution, and found a good probability that it will become an Earth-crosser asteroid, and may spend a quarter of its life in such an orbit. Damocles has a stable orbit for tens of thousands of years before and after the present, because its highly inclined orbit does not take it near Jupiter or Saturn.
...
Wikipedia