Orbit
It is categorized as an Apollo asteroid (because its semi-major axis is greater than that of the Earth's and its perihelion is less than 1.017 astronomical units. It is also suspected to be a member of the Pallas family of asteroids.
Phaethon's most remarkable distinction is that it approaches the Sun closer than any other named asteroid: its perihelion is only 0.140 AU — less than half of Mercury's perihelion distance. It is a Mercury-, Venus-, Earth-, and Mars-crosser. The surface temperature at perihelion could reach ~1025 K, or 1400 F.
Read more about this topic: 3200 Phaethon
Famous quotes containing the word orbit:
“Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used.”
—David Lehman (b. 1948)
“The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The human spirit is itself the most wonderful fairy tale that can possibly be. What a magnificent world lies enclosed within our bosoms! No solar orbit hems it in, the inexhaustible wealth of the total visible creation is outweighed by its riches!”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)