Asteroid
An asteroid that behaves like a comet, shedding debris near the Sun and supplying the material for the annual Geminid meteor shower.
| Type | Asteroid |
|---|---|
| Distance from the Sun | 1.27 AU |
| Diameter | 6 km |
| Mass | 1.40 × 10^14 kg |
| Temperature | -26°C |
| Orbital period | 524 days |
| Apparent magnitude | 14.6 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Discovered | 1983 |
At 6 km across, 3200 Phaethon is less than a thousandth of the diameter of Earth.
Its mass is less than a thousandth of the mass of Earth.
It keeps an average distance of 1.271 AU from the Sun, so sunlight takes 11 minutes to reach it.
A single orbit takes 1.4 years.
An average temperature of 247 K works out at -26 degrees Celsius, colder than the 15 degrees Earth averages.
It has been on record since 1983.
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