Apohele asteroid
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Apohele asteroids are a subclass of Aten asteroids. They have not only their perihelion at less than one AU (within Earth's orbit), but also their aphelion; that is, their entire orbit is within Earth's.
As of July 2004 there are only two confirmed Apoheles: Template:Mpl and Template:Mpl. An earlier object, Template:Mpl, has not been seen since February 24, 1998 and its discoverer David J. Tholen acknowledges that it is currently lost.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These three asteroids have aphelia in the 0.980-0.973 AU range. In great part because of the search methods used to look for asteroids, there are currently no known asteroids with orbits contained within Venus' or Mercury's (e.g., Vulcanoids).
The name Apohele is still under a bit of debate, since most asteroid subclasses are named for prominent members of that group (for example, Aten asteroids are named for 2062 Aten, the first such asteroid discovered), whereas there is no asteroid named "Apohele". Apohele is the Hawaiian word for orbit.
See also
References
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| The minor planetsedit |
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