File:Asteroid_4179_Toutatis_close-up.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- near-Earth asteroid
- Named after
- Teutates
- Followed by
- 4180 Anaxagoras
- Follows
- 4178 Mimeev
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 3.35
- Mass
- 50000000000000
- Orbital period
- 1481.240624993748
- Image
- Toutatis.jpg
Show 23 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Christian Pollas
- Commons category
- 4179 Toutatis
- provisional designation
- 1989 AC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1989-01-04
- site of astronomical discovery
- Caussols
- orbital inclination
- 0.4480782679755703
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.624740333220544
- apoapsis
- 4.13176317135645
- albedo
- 0.405
- absolute magnitude
- 15.29
- periapsis
- 0.9542965353863627
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.543029853371406
- temperature
- 174
- mean anomaly
- 76.89343773300793
- longitude of ascending node
- 125.3653430475722
- argument of periapsis
- 277.8613313137313
- apparent magnitude
- 22.4
- density
- 2.1
- surface gravity
- 0.001
- rotation period
- 176.0
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460684.1175450957
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “4179 Toutatis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.