CaltechAUTHORS
Published August 10, 2022 | Version public
Journal Article Metadata-only

Discovery of the First Known Asteroid Confined within the Orbit of Venus

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon National Central University
  • 2. ROR icon Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  • 3. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 4. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 5. ROR icon California Institute of Technology

Abstract

We report on the discovery by the Zwicky Transient Facility of an asteroid orbiting entirely within the orbit of Venus, the first known example of this orbital class. The asteroid's perihelion is closer to the Sun than the aphelion of Mercury, and its diameter is estimated at about 1.8 km assuming an albedo of 0.2. The object was first observed on 2020 January 4 in four exposures obtained 7 minutes apart during an evening twilight survey. Its IAU-recognized designation is 594913 'Ayló'chaxnim.

Additional Information

Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48 inch and the 60 inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant N0. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. Following the final acceptance of this paper for publication Dr. Bryce Bolin elected to withdraw his name from the author list. We note that Dr. Bolin played a critical role in this discovery by recognizing the uniqueness of this object in the pipeline output and triggering timely follow-up. We thank him for his contributions to this paper. The development of ZMODE and ZSTREAK and the search for asteroids in ZTF data are made possible by NASA grants 80NSSC19K0780 and 80NSSC21K0659. We acknowledge Dr. Robert Hurt's significant contribution to the generation of figures. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the cultural significance that Palomar Mountain has for the Pauma Band of the Luiseño Indians, as well as the importance of the night sky to the Luiseño people. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations of the sky from this mountain.

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
116515
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20220825-833128900.760

Funding

NSF
AST-1440341
ZTF partner institutions
NASA
80NSSC19K0780
NASA
80NSSC21K0659

Dates

Created
2022-08-31
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-10-05
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Astronomy Department, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Zwicky Transient Facility, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)