2013 ND15

The asteroid 2013 ND15 is the first known Trojan horse of the planet Venus. However, the web is not stable over long periods.

Discovery and designation

2013 ND15 was born on July 13, 2013 as part of a larger sky survey by Pan - STARRS, a system for the continuous observation of the night sky by four telescopes on Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and Haleakala (Maui ), by a team of astronomers at N. Primak, A Schultz, T. Goggia and K. Chambers. discovered by Pan - STARRS -1 telescope on Haleakala. The first recording of the asteroid comes from 13 July 2013.

Web properties

Orbit

2013 ND15 orbits the sun on a prograde, highly elliptical orbit between 42.053 million km ( 0.281 AU) and 174.427 million km ( 1.166 AU) distance from its center. The orbital eccentricity is 0.611, the orbit is inclined 4.794 ° to the ecliptic. He is currently located on the Lagrangian point L4 of the Sun - Venus system. In this position, he runs the Venus ahead by 60 ° and describes a " kaulquappenförmige " orbit around the L4 point.

The Great semi-major axis of 108,239,700 km ( 0.723538 AU) is that of Venus with 108.208 million kilometers ( 0.723327 ) are very similar, but the eccentricity is so high that the orbit of the asteroid from within the Mercury orbit to outside the Earth's orbit extends and thus crosses the orbits of three planets. This is one of 2013 ND15 next to the status as Koorbitales object to the group of Aten asteroids.

The orbital period of 2013 ND15 is 224 days, 19 hours, 7 minutes and 23 seconds. Therefore, it takes about 2 hours and 18 minutes longer than that of Venus.

Orbital resonance

2013 ND15 shows a behavior of an orbital resonance or near- resonance with the planet Mercury, Venus and Earth. However, its short-term dynamic web development is characterized by the high orbital eccentricity of the other three well-known Venus co-orbital (322756) 2001 CK32, 2002 and 2012 VE68 XE133, which are classified as quasi-satellite. 2013 ND15 will leave within about 500 years, the 1:1 resonance with Venus and be a recurrent commuters ( quasi- satellite). It seems as if the asteroid had been forced until about 7000 years ago by Venus on its current path.

Potential danger

2013 ND15 is not on the list of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs ) of the Minor Planet Center, as its absolute magnitude may exceed 22.0; yet he comes the earth periodically up to 0.05 AU (about 7.5 million kilometers ) near. On June 21, 2016, the asteroid will approach Earth at a distance of 0.077 AU (about 11.5 million km ).

Physical Properties

The diameter of 2013 ND15 is estimated at 42 to 93 meters, from an assumed albedo in range of 0.04 to 0.20.

Research

After his discovery was 2013 ND15 observed from July 16 to August 8, 2013, a total of 21 times what an observation sheet of 26 days showed (as Feb. 2014 ).