2013 ND15

2013 ND₁₅
Discovery
Discovered by	Pan-STARRS
Discovery date	13 July 2013
Designations
MPC designation	2013 ND15
Minor planet category	Aten asteroid; Mercury crosser; Venus crosser; Earth crosser;
Orbital characteristics
	Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5)
	Uncertainty parameter 7
Aphelion	1.1660 AU (174.43 Gm)
Perihelion	0.28100 AU (42.037 Gm)
Semi-major axis	0.72351 AU (108.236 Gm)
Eccentricity	0.61162
Orbital period (sidereal)	0.62 yr (224.8 d)
Mean anomaly	198.82°
Mean motion	1.6015°/day
Inclination	4.7962°
Longitude of ascending node	95.841°
Argument of perihelion	19.697°
Earth MOID	0.00751978 AU (1,124,943 km)
Jupiter MOID	3.95146 AU (591.130 Gm)
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	40–100 m[a]
Absolute magnitude (H)	24.1

2013 ND₁₅ (also written 2013 ND15) is an asteroid that is a temporary trojan of Venus, the first known Venus trojan.^[6]

Discovery, orbit and physical properties

2013 ND₁₅ was discovered on 13 July 2013 by N. Primak, A. Schultz, T. Goggia and K. Chambers, observing for the Pan-STARRS project. As of September 2014, it has been observed 21 times with a data-arc span of 26 days. It is an Aten asteroid and its semi-major axis (0.7235 AU) is very similar to that of Venus but it has high eccentricity (0.6115) and small orbital inclination (4.794°). With an absolute magnitude of 24.1, it has a diameter in the range 40–100 m (for an assumed albedo range of 0.04-0.20).

Trojan dynamical state and orbital evolution

2013 ND₁₅ has been identified as a Venus trojan following a tadpole orbit around Venus' Lagrangian point L₄.^[6] Besides being a Venus co-orbital, this asteroid is also a Mercury crosser and an Earth crosser. 2013 ND₁₅ exhibits resonant (or near-resonant) behavior with Mercury, Venus and Earth.^[6] Its short-term dynamical evolution is different from that of the other three Venus co-orbitals, 2001 CK32, Zoozve, and 2012 XE133.^[6]

Potentially hazardous asteroid

2013 ND₁₅ is not included in the Minor Planet Center list of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) because its absolute magnitude is greater than 22.0, even though it comes to within 0.05 AU of Earth periodically. It approached Earth at 0.077 AU on 21 June 2016.

Notes

^{^} This is assuming an albedo of 0.20–0.04.

References

^ List Of Aten Minor Planets
^ ^a ^b ^c "2013 ND15". JPL Small-Body Database. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. SPK-ID: 3645042. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
^ AstDys-2 on 2013 ND15 Retrieved 2014-01-21
^ NEODyS-2 on 2013 ND15 Retrieved 2014-01-21
^ Absolute-magnitude conversion table (H)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d de la Fuente Marcos, C.; de la Fuente Marcos, R. (2014). "Asteroid 2013 ND15: Trojan companion to Venus, PHA to the Earth". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 439 (3): 2970–2977. arXiv:1401.5013. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.439.2970D. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu152.

Further reading

Understanding the Distribution of Near-Earth Asteroids Bottke, W. F., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Petit, J.-M., Gladman, B. 2000, Science, Vol. 288, Issue 5474, pp. 2190–2194.
A Numerical Survey of Transient Co-orbitals of the Terrestrial Planets Christou, A. A. 2000, Icarus, Vol. 144, Issue 1, pp. 1–20.
Debiased Orbital and Absolute Magnitude Distribution of the Near-Earth Objects Bottke, W. F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H. F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T. S. 2002, Icarus, Vol. 156, Issue 2, pp. 399–433.
Transient co-orbital asteroids Brasser, R., Innanen, K. A., Connors, M., Veillet, C., Wiegert, P., Mikkola, S., Chodas, P. W. 2004, Icarus, Vol. 171, Issue 1, pp. 102–109.
The population of Near Earth Asteroids in coorbital motion with Venus Morais, M. H. M., Morbidelli, A. 2006, Icarus, Vol. 185, Issue 1, pp. 29–38.
Asteroid 2013 ND15: Trojan companion to Venus, PHA to the Earth de la Fuente Marcos, C., de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2013, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 439, Issue 3, pp. 2970–2977.