(1862) Apollo

(1862) Apollo or Apollo is an asteroid that is part of the Apollo asteroids and was discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth on April 24, 1932 from the Observatory of Heidelberg-Königstuhl, Germany.

Designation and name

Apollo was initially designated 1932 HA. It was later named after Apollo, a god from Greek mythology.

Orbital characteristics

Apollo is located at an average distance of 1.47 ua from the Sun, being able to approach up to 0.6469 ua and move away up to 2.293 ua. It has an eccentricity of 0.56 and an orbital inclination of 6.353°. It takes 651.1 days to complete one orbit around the Sun.

Apollo belongs to the group of potentially hazardous asteroids and gives its name to the Apollo asteroid group. Analysis of its rotation has provided observational evidence for the YORP effect.

Satellite

On November 4, 2005, a team of astronomers announced that an asteroidal satellite orbiting Apollo had been detected, with observations made by the Arecibo radio telescope from October to November 2005. The satellite, provisionally designated S/2005 (1862) 1, is about 80 m in diameter and orbits about 3 km from Apollo.