Discovered by C. Kowal MPC designation 2102 Minor planet category PHA Discovered 27 December 1975 Discoverer Charles T. Kowal Discovery site Palomar Observatory | Discovery date 27 December 1975 Alternative names 1975 YA Observation arc 38.63 yr (14111 days) Orbits Sun Named after Tantalus Asteroid group Apollo asteroid | |
Similar 2101 Adonis, 2201 Oljato, 1865 Cerberus, 4183 Cuno, 3362 Khufu | ||
2102 Tantalus (1975 YA) is an Apollo asteroid discovered on December 27, 1975 by C. Kowal at Palomar Observatory. It is a Q-type asteroid.
2102 Tantalus 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 0.0439 AU (6,570,000 km; 4,080,000 mi). Its orbit is well-determined for the next several hundred years.
It will pass 0.04439 AU (6,641,000 km; 4,126,000 mi) from Earth on 2038-Dec-27, which is just slightly closer than the 1975-Dec-26 approach of 0.046 AU. The asteroid is about 2–4 km in diameter.
References
2102 Tantalus Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA