Physical Characteristics and Meteor Shower
Phaethon's orbit looks more like that of a comet than an asteroid. However, it has never been observed to exhibit a coma, gas jet, or dust tail, typical features of comets. Despite this, shortly after its discovery, Fred Whipple observed that the "orbital elements of 1983 TB shown on IAUC 3879 are virtually coincident with the mean orbital elements of 19 Geminid meteors photographed with the super-Schmidt meteor cameras". In other words, Phaethon is the long-sought parent body of the Geminids meteor shower of mid-December. Phaethon has been referred to as a "rock comet".
Phaethon's composition fits the notion of its cometary origin; it is classified as a B-type asteroid because it is composed of dark material. Since Phaethon, several other objects showing mixed cometary and asteroidal features have been discovered, such as 133P/Elst–Pizarro.
Read more about this topic: 3200 Phaethon
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