is an asteroid, classified as

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

of the Aten group that is a temporary co-orbital of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

Discovery, orbit and physical properties

was first observed on 12 December 2012 by J. A. Johnson working for the

Catalina Sky Survey Catalina Sky Survey (CSS; obs. code: 703) is an astronomical survey to discover comets and asteroids. It is conducted at the Steward Observatory's Catalina Station, located near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. CSS focuses on the search ...

. As of March 2013, it has been observed 102 times with a data-arc span of 28 days. It is an

Aten asteroid The Aten asteroids are a dynamical group of asteroids whose orbits bring them into proximity with Earth. By definition, Atens are Earth-crossing asteroids . The group is named after 2062 Aten, the first of its kind, discovered on 7 January ...

and its semi-major axis of 0.72 AU is very similar to that of Venus but its

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...

is rather large (0.4332) and its

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

of 6.7° is also significant. With an

absolute magnitude Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if it ...

of 23.4, it has a diameter of approximately 62 to 138 meters. On 26 November 2020 it has been recovered and has now a well established orbit with an uncertainty parameter of 3.

Quasi-satellite dynamical state and orbital evolution

has been identified as a Venus co-orbital following a transitional path between Venus's Lagrangian points and . Besides being a Venus co-orbital, this asteroid is also a

Mercury grazer A Mercury crosser is an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mercury. The Mercury crossers proper have aphelia outside Mercury's (0.4667 AU) and perihelia inside Mercury's (0.3075 AU), whereas those listed here as outer grazers have perihelia wit ...

and an Earth crosser. exhibits

resonant Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscilla ...

(or near-resonant) behavior with Mercury (planet), Mercury, Venus and the Earth. Its short-term dynamical evolution is similar to that of two other Venus co-orbitals, and .

Potentially hazardous asteroid

was included in the Minor Planet Center list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (Potentially hazardous asteroid, PHAs) because it comes to within 0.05 AU of Earth periodically, but it has since been removed. It will approach Earth at 0.0055 AU (and the Moon at 0.0045 AU) on 30 December 2028.

Notes

* This is assuming an albedo of 0.25–0.05.

References

;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 2012 XE133: a transient companion to Venus
de la Fuente Marcos, C., de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2013, ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'', Vol. 432, Issue 2, pp. 886–893.
AstDys-2 on 2012 XE133
Retrieved 2013-02-20

External links