Discovery date 30 August 1984 Observation arc 7394 days (20.24 yr) Perihelion 0.52589 AU (78.672 Gm) Discovered 30 August 1984 | Minor planet category PHA Aphelion 1.4531 AU (217.38 Gm) Orbital period 358 days Orbits Sun | |
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Discovered by R. S. Dunbar, M. A. Barucci Similar 4183 Cuno, 2201 Oljato, 3554 Amun, 1865 Cerberus, Sun | ||
3362 Khufu is a near-Earth asteroid. It was discovered by R. Scott Dunbar and Maria A. Barucci at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, on August 30, 1984. Its provisional designation was 1984 QA. It is named after Khufu, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. Khufu was the 4th Aten asteroid to be numbered.
3362 Khufu 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 0.0135 AU (2,020,000 km; 1,250,000 mi). Its orbit is well-determined for the next several hundred years.
Khufu crosses the orbits of Mars, Earth, and Venus and makes close approaches to Mercury as well. From 1900 to 2100 it drew nearer than 30 Gm (0.2 AU) to Mercury 26, Venus 27, Earth 20, and Mars 11 times.