4015 Wilson–Harrington

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( 4015 ) Wilson - Harrington is a near-Earth asteroid ( group of near-Earth objects ), which was re-discovered on November 15, 1979 by Eleanor F. Helin at the Palomar Observatory.

The asteroid is named after the two American astronomers and explorers common Albert George Wilson and Robert G. Harrington. This had been also discovered the sky body 30 years ago on November 19, 1949 at Mount Palomar, but the few shots ranged from insufficient to make a sufficiently accurate determination of the orbital parameters, and he was lost again. On the former recording indications of a meteoric nature of the celestial body, which therefore received as a periodic comet the name 107P/Wilson-Harrington showed.

On later recordings, which were obtained since the rediscovery by Helin, no further signs of a comet could be found. Therefore it is assumed that there are dealing with an extinct, inactive comet nucleus, which only shows occasional breakouts. The 0,624 with very large for an asteroid eccentricity of the orbit is also more typical of a periodic comet.