is an asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group that is a temporary quasi-satellite of the Earth, the third known Earth quasi-satellite.

Discovery, orbit and physical properties

was discovered on 12 June 2013 by the Pan-STARRS survey, and its discovery was announced in a Minor Planets Electronic Circular on 15 June. As of September 2014, it has been observed 26 times with a data-arc span of 349 days. It is an Apollo asteroid and its semi-major axis (1.0016 AU) is very similar to that of the Earth. It has relatively high orbital eccentricity (0.4521) and high orbital inclination (49.9761°). With an absolute magnitude of 21.7, it has a diameter in the range 130–300 m (for an assumed albedo range of 0.04–0.20).

Quasi-satellite dynamical state and orbital evolution has been identified as an Earth quasi-satellite following a kidney-shaped retrograde orbit around the Earth.

See also 164207 Cardea

Notes

This is assuming an albedo of 0.20–0.04.

References

Further reading Understanding the Distribution of Near-Earth Asteroids Bottke, W. F., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Petit, J.-M., Gladman, B. 2000, Science, Vol. 288, Issue 5474, pp. 2190–2194. A Numerical Survey of Transient Co-orbitals of the Terrestrial Planets Christou, A. A. 2000, Icarus, Vol. 144, Issue 1, pp. 1–20. Debiased Orbital and Absolute Magnitude Distribution of the Near-Earth Objects Bottke, W. F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H. F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T. S. 2002, Icarus, Vol. 156, Issue 2, pp. 399–433. Transient co-orbital asteroids Brasser, R., Innanen, K. A., Connors, M., Veillet, C., Wiegert, P., Mikkola, S., Chodas, P. W. 2004, Icarus, Vol. 171, Issue 1, pp. 102–109. A Kozai-resonating Earth quasi-satellite Connors, M. 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 437, Issue 1, pp. L85–L89. Asteroid 2014 OL339: yet another Earth quasi-satellite de la Fuente Marcos, C., de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 445, Issue 3, pp. 2985–2994.

External links Discovery MPEC data at MPC