In this video you will learn about Damocles. The elongated orbit of this asteroid, its closest return to the Sun and several subsequent ones will be shown.
Damocles belongs to the centaurs, a group of asteroids that spend most of their time between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune. At the same time, the orbits of centaurs can intersect the orbits of giant planets. Damocles, at the perihelion of its orbit, turns out to be even closer to the Sun than Mars. It was discovered in 1991 just during its last approach to the Sun. The next perihelion passage by the asteroid Damocles in the vicinity of the orbit of Mars is expected on August 17, 2031.
Damocles is also the first representative of the group of damocloids. Damocloids are asteroids with orbits similar to periodic Halley-type comets. It is believed that damocloids are extinct comets. That is, these are the nuclei of comets, from which all volatile substances evaporated in the process of numerous approaches to the Sun. Surely the asteroid Damocles was once a comet. Perhaps it is it which is the source of the meteor shower observed in the Draco constellation from the surface of Mars.
Damocloids have unstable orbits because they are significantly influenced by giant planets. There is a possibility that the orbit of Damocles may change so much that it will begin to approach the Earth or even collide with it. It is for this reason that the asteroid was named after the character of the ancient Greek legend of the sword of Damocles, a symbol of the impending threat. The collision of a 10-km-sized Damocles with our planet could lead to mass extinction.
Modeling and rendering were performed by author of this publication using own software. The calculations took into account the mutual influence of the Sun, all the planets of the Solar System, the Moon and the asteroid on each other. Relativistic effects were also taken into account in the calculation.
The track Gazing by Andy G. Cohen sounds in this video. This track was not changed. CC BY 4.0 DEED (Attribution 4.0 International) license.
