Discovery date 14 September 1951 Observation arc 23558 days (64.50 yr) Discovered 14 September 1951 Spectral type S-type asteroid | Alternative names 1951 RA Aphelion 1.6630 AU (248.78 Gm) Orbits Sun Discovery site Palomar Observatory | |
Discovered by Albert George Wilson, Rudolph Minkowski Minor planet category Apollo, PHA, Mars-crosser Named after National Geographic Society Discoverers Rudolph Minkowski, Albert George Wilson Similar Albert George Wilson discoveries, Other celestial objects | ||
The asteroid 1620 Geographos /dʒiːoʊˈɡræfɒs/ was discovered on September 14, 1951, at the Palomar Observatory by Albert George Wilson and Rudolph Minkowski. It was originally given the provisional designation 1951 RA. Its name, a Greek word meaning "geographer" (geo– 'Earth' + graphos 'drawer/writer'), was chosen to honour geographers and the National Geographic Society.
Geographos is a Mars-crosser asteroid and a near-Earth object belonging to the Apollos. In 1994, during the asteroid's closest approach to Earth in two centuries at 5.0 Gm-which will not be bettered until 2586- a radar study of it was conducted by the Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California. The resultant images show Geographos to be the most elongated object in the solar system; it measures 5.1×1.8 km.
Geographos is an S-type asteroid, meaning that it is highly reflective and composed of nickel-iron mixed with iron- and magnesium-silicates.
Geographos was to be explored by the U.S.'s Clementine mission; however, a malfunctioning thruster ended the mission before it could approach the asteroid.
1620 Geographos is a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) because its minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is less than 0.05 AU and its diameter is greater than 150 meters. The Earth-MOID is 0.0304 AU (4,550,000 km; 2,830,000 mi). Its orbit is well-determined for the next several hundred years.