Battle of Caving Banks

2012 XE133 is an asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Aten group that is a temporary co-orbital of Venus.[4]

Discovery, orbit and physical properties

2012 XE133 was first observed on 12 December 2012 by J. A. Johnson working for the Catalina Sky Survey. As of March 2013, it has been observed 102 times with a data-arc span of 28 days. It is an Aten asteroid and its semi-major axis of 0.72 AU is very similar to that of Venus but its eccentricity is rather large (0.4332) and its inclination of 6.7° is also significant. With an absolute magnitude of 23.4, it has a diameter of approximately 62 to 138 meters. On 26 November 2020 it has been recovered and has now a well established orbit with an uncertainty parameter of 3.[citation needed]

Quasi-satellite dynamical state and orbital evolution

2012 XE133 has been identified as a Venus co-orbital following a transitional path between Venus's Lagrangian points L5 point and L3 point.[4] Besides being a Venus co-orbital, this asteroid is also a Mercury grazer and an Earth crosser. 2012 XE133 exhibits resonant (or near-resonant) behavior with Mercury, Venus and the Earth.[4] Its short-term dynamical evolution is similar to that of two other Venus co-orbitals, 2001 CK32 and Zoozve.[4]

Potentially hazardous asteroid

2012 XE133 was included in the Minor Planet Center list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) because it comes to within 0.05 AU of Earth periodically,[citation needed] but it has since been removed. It will approach Earth at 0.0055 AU (and the Moon at 0.0045 AU) on 30 December 2028.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  • ^ This is assuming an albedo of 0.25–0.05.

References

Further reading

External links