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3362 Khufu

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3362 Khufu
3362 Khufu on 29 November 2007
Khufu takes about 359.47 days to orbit the Sun.[1]
Discovery
Discovered byR. S. Dunbar
M. A. Barucci
Discovery sitePalomar
Discovery date30 August 1984
Designations
(3362) Khufu
Pronunciation/ˈkf/[1]
PHA[2]
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc7394 days (20.24 yr)
Aphelion1.4531 AU (217.38 Gm)
Perihelion0.52589 AU (78.672 Gm)
0.98951 AU (148.029 Gm)
Eccentricity0.46853
0.98 yr (359.5 d)
35.759°
1.0013°/day
Inclination9.9173°
152.45°
55.035°
Earth MOID0.0130121 AU (1.94658 Gm)
Physical characteristics
Dimensions0.7 km[2]
0.35 km
0.21[2][3]
B-type asteroid[4]
18.3[2]

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 30 August 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).[2] 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.

Orbit

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Orbit diagram of Khufu asteroid with object location as of 19 May 2013

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Khufu". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 3362 Khufu (1984 QA)" (last observation: 2004-11-27). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  3. ^ Hazards due to Comets and Asteroids (1994), Ed. T. Gehrels, pp. 540–543
  4. ^ based on a high-resolution spectrum by Xu et al. (1995) or Bus and Binzel (2002)
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