Key facts
- Discovered by
- Eleanor F. Helin
- Discovery site
- 1.22-m Samuel Oschin telescope
- Discovery date
- 28 February 1982
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ n ɪər i ə s / NEER -ee-əs
- Named after
- Νηρεύς Nēreús
- Minor planet category
- Apollo , PHA
- Observation arc
- 14647 days (40.10 yr)
- Aphelion
- 2.0250 AU (303 million km )
- Perihelion
- 0.95287 AU (143 million km)
- Semi major axis
- 1.4889 AU (223 million km)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1.82 yr (663.62 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 256.71 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 32 33.371 / day
- Inclination
- 1.4316°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 314.41°
- Argument of perihelion
- 158.12°
- Earth moid
- 0.0031 AU (460 thousand km)
- Dimensions
- X = 510 ± 20 m Y = 330 ± 20 m Z = 241 +80, −10 m
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- near-Earth asteroid
- Named after
- Nereus
- Followed by
- 4661 Yebes
- Follows
- 4659 Roddenberry
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 0.33
- Orbital period
- 660.9791580339959
- Image
- Nereus.jpg
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Eleanor F. Helin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1982 DB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1982-02-28
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3587882686489839
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
- albedo
- 0.55
- orbital inclination
- 1.453542356528226
- periapsis
- 0.9521989214483247
- apoapsis
- 2.017799520227303
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 1.484999220837814
- mean anomaly
- 49.81686735054075
- longitude of ascending node
- 313.107019106974
- argument of periapsis
- 159.5422955451417
- absolute magnitude
- 18.75
- Commons category
- 4660 Nereus
- rotation period
- 15.1749
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460909.033580452
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
4660 Nereus (provisional designation 1982 DB) is a small (0.33-kilometre (0.21 mi)) asteroid. It was discovered by Eleanor F. Helin on 28 February 1982, approximately a month after it passed 4.1 million km (11 LD) from Earth.
Nereus is potentially an important asteroid with a high albedo. It is an Apollo and Mars-crosser, with an orbit that frequently comes close to Earth, and because of this it is exceptionally accessible to spacecraft. Indeed, because of its small size and close orbit, its delta-V for rendezvous of ~5 km/s is smaller than the Moon's, which is about 6.3 km/s.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “4660 Nereus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.