| Discovered by LINEAR Alternative names 1999 SN5 Observation arc 5111 days (13.99 yr) Orbital period 360 days Inclination 22.68° Asteroid group Aten asteroid | Discovery date 14 September 1998 Minor planet category Aten asteroid Aphelion 1.7045 AU (254.99 Gm) Discovered 14 September 1998 Discovery site Socorro | |
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| Discoverer Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research Similar 5381 Sekhmet, (66391) 1999 KW4, 2577 Litva, (33342) 1998 WT24, 69230 Hermes | ||
(66063) 1998 RO1 is an Aten asteroid with a very eccentric orbit that was discovered September 14, 1998, by the LINEAR program. It is known to have a moon, S/2001 (66063) 1.
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Interaction with Earth
1998 RO1's orbit is very eccentric, with an aphelion beyond the orbit of Mars and a perihelion inside the orbit of Mercury. It has an orbital period of 360.29 days (0.99 years) and makes close approaches to Earth. But 1998 RO1 makes closer approaches to other inner planets, especially Mars. Its closest approach to a planet between 1950–2200 was to Mars, as it passed 0.00898 AU (1,343,000 km) from Mars on March 19, 1964, and will pass 0.0054 AU (810,000 km) from Mars on October 12, 2065.
Moon
1998 RO1 has one moon, S/2001 (66063) 1. This moon was discovered from lightcurve observations going from September 13–28, 2013, and was confirmed by radar observations from the Arecibo Observatory one year later. It is in a very close orbit to 1998 RO1, with a semi-major axis of 800 m (2,600 ft) and an eccentricity of 0.06, giving it a periapsis of 752 m (2,467 ft) and an apoapsis of 848 m (2,782 ft). S/2001 (66063) 1 takes 14.54 hours to complete one orbit around 1998 RO1. From the surface of 1998 RO1, S/2001 (66063) 1 would have an apparent diameter of roughly 41°. For comparison, the Sun appears to be 0.5° from Earth.