Key facts
- Discovered by
- Christian Pollas
- Discovery site
- Caussols
- Discovery date
- 4 January 1989
- Pronunciation
- / t aʊ ˈ t eɪ t ɪ s /
- Named after
- Toutatis (Celtic mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1989 AC 1934 CT
- Minor planet category
- NEO Apollo PHA Alinda Mars-crosser
- Adjectives
- Toutatian
- Observation arc
- 83.29 yr (30,422 days)
- Earliest precovery date
- 10 February 1934
- Aphelion
- 4.1242 AU
- Perihelion
- 0.9399 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5321 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.03 yr (1,472 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 5.1220 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 40.56 / day
- Inclination
- 0.4460°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 124.30°
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
4179 Toutatis (provisional designation 1989 AC) is an elongated, stony asteroid and slow rotator, classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo asteroid group, approximately 2.5 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by French astronomer Christian Pollas at Caussols in 1989, the asteroid was named after Toutatis from Celtic mythology.
Toutatis is also a Mars-crosser asteroid with a chaotic orbit produced by a 3:1 resonance with the planet Jupiter, a 1:4 resonance with the planet Earth, and frequent close approaches to the terrestrial planets, including Earth. In December 2012, Toutatis passed within about 18 lunar distances of Earth. The Chinese lunar probe Chang'e 2 flew by the asteroid at a distance of 3.2 kilometers and a relative velocity of 10.73 km/s. Toutatis approached Earth again in 2016, but will not make another notably close approach until 2069.
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Categories
Alinda asteroidsApollo asteroidsAstronomical objects discovered in 1989Discoveries by Christian PollasMinor planet object articles (numbered)Minor planets visited by spacecraftNamed minor planetsNear-Earth objects in 2012Potentially hazardous asteroidsRadar-imaged asteroidsSk-type asteroids (SMASS)Slow rotating minor planets