MPC designation 2013 ND15 Discovered 13 July 2013 Argument of perihelion 19.697° | Discovery date July 13, 2013 Aphelion 1.1660 AU (174.43 Gm) Inclination 4.7962° Mean anomaly 198.82° | |
Semi-major axis 0.72351 AU (108.236 Gm) Similar 2002 VE68, Hi'iaka, 69230 Hermes, Proteus, Jupiter trojan | ||
2013 ND15 (also written 2013 ND15) is an asteroid that is a temporary trojan of Venus, the first known Venus trojan.
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Discovery, orbit and physical properties
2013 ND15 was discovered on July 13, 2013 by N. Primak, A. Schultz, T. Goggia and K. Chambers observing for the Pan-STARRS project. As of September 2014, it has been observed 21 times with a data-arc span of 26 days. It is an Aten asteroid and its semi-major axis (0.7235 AU) is very similar to that of Venus but it has high eccentricity (0.6115) and small orbital inclination (4.794°). With an absolute magnitude of 24.1, it has a diameter in the range 40–100 m (for an assumed albedo range of 0.04-0.20).
Trojan dynamical state and orbital evolution
2013 ND15 has been identified as a Venus trojan following a tadpole orbit around Venus' Lagrangian point L4. Besides being a Venus co-orbital, this asteroid is also a Mercury crosser and an Earth crosser. 2013 ND15 exhibits resonant (or near-resonant) behavior with Mercury, Venus and Earth. Its short-term dynamical evolution is different from that of the other three Venus co-orbitals, 2001 CK32, 2002 VE68, and 2012 XE133.
Potentially hazardous asteroid
2013 ND15 is not included in the Minor Planet Center list of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) because its absolute magnitude is greater than 22.0, even though it comes to within 0.05 AU of Earth periodically. It approached Earth at 0.077 AU on June 21, 2016.