Re: Are there asteroids between the sun and mercury?

From: Jonathan Silverlight (jsilverlight_at_spam.merseia.fsnet.co.uk.invalid)
Date: 01/30/05 

Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 13:30:56 +0000

In message <1107089048.593563.256020@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
heinrich_neumaier@yahoo.com writes
>
>This is just a question of curiosity. Are there any data on this?
>Or are there asteroids that get there at leats at certain times
>during their orbit?
>
>HM
>
I don't think anyone's found an asteroid which is permanently inside the
orbit of Mercury - they are called vulcanoids, if you want to know more.
Icarus is the most famous asteroid with a perihelion inside the orbit of
Mercury, though 1999 KW4 gets closer (0.200 AU,
<http://www.searchspaniel.com/index.php/Aten_asteroid>) and Phaeton
apparently is closest at 0.140 AU. 

-- 
Support the DEC Tsunami Appeal http://www.dec.org.uk/.
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

Relevant Pages