Both are dark, B-type asteroids comprised of materials that have been modified by water. Compositionally, 3200 Phaethon resembles the larger asteroid 2 Pallas and may possibly be related to it. ![]() Shortly after it was discovered on October 11, 1983, with the orbiting Infrared Astronomical Telescope (IRAS), American astronomer and comet researcher Fred Whipple noticed that Phaethon's orbit matched that of the Geminids, clinching it as the shower's source. Getting roasted by the Sun every 524 days explains Phaethon's other claim to fame as the parent of the Geminid meteor shower. Its scorched surface tops out around 1200☏ (627☌), hot enough for lead to flow like water and aluminum to turn to putty. If lead melts on the innermost planet, where the temperature reaches 800☏ (427☌), Phaethon's got it beat by a mile. It comes closer to the Sun than any other named asteroid, with a perihelion distance of 0.14 AU, or less than half that of Mercury. Phaethon distinguishes itself in other ways. One reason the asteroid fades so rapidly after closest approach is because its phase narrows to a crescent from our perspective. Numbers beneath the phases are visual magnitudes at the time. This diagram gives an overview of 3200 Phaethon's flight from Auriga through Capricornus in the next few weeks. ![]() While classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, a look ahead shows that Phaeton will keep a safe distance for at least the next four hundred years. Only in this instance, we needn't worry about an impact. rex with a telescope, the coming nemesis would have looked like an innocent pinprick of light the night before, inching across the stars just like Phaethon will for us. Whenever I see an asteroid or comet move in real time, I'm reminded of a particular 10-km-wide rock that slammed into the Yucatan 65 million years ago and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Hold onto your eyepiece! This thing will be scooting along at up 15° per day or 38″a minute (about the distance between Albireo and its companion star) - fast enough to cross the field of view like a slow-moving satellite. Just before closest approach, it will reach magnitude 10.7, bright enough to track in a 3-inch telescope. Eastern Time (23:00 UT) on December 16th. 3200 Phaethon (FAY-eh-thon), the size of a rural hamlet, will pass within 10.3 million kilometers from Earth at 6 p.m. We have a fantastic opportunity to see a unique asteroid brighter than it's ever been observed. The 5.1-kilometer-wide Phaethon completes an orbit every 1.4 years. Perhaps it is an extinct comet, or maybe it's a true asteroid that's cracking and shedding rocky bits when closest to the Sun. The orbit of asteroid 3200 Phaethon is highly elongated, much like a comet's. Get ready to watch it race across the sky. ![]() The parent asteroid of December's Geminid meteor shower, 3200 Phaethon, is about to make a historically close flyby.
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