page_title: 1566 Icarus
section_title: Orbit and classification
hierarchical_section_title: 1566 Icarus / Orbit and classification
caption_attribution_description: English: An orbit of 1566 Icarus
context_page_description: 1566 Icarus, provisional designation 1949 MA, is an extremely eccentric asteroid, approximately 1.4 km in diameter. It is a near-Earth object of the Apollo group and the lowest numbered potentially hazardous asteroid. In 1968, it became the first asteroid ever observed by radar. Its orbit brings it closer to the Sun than Mercury and further out than the orbit of Mars, which also makes it a Mercury-, Venus-, and Mars-crosser. This stony asteroid and relatively fast rotator was discovered by German astronomer Walter Baade at the Palomar Observatory, California, on 27 June 1949. It was named after the mythological Icarus.
context_section_description: Icarus orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.2–2.0 AU once every 13 months (409 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.83 and an inclination of 23° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Palomar.
  At perihelion, Icarus comes closer to the Sun than Mercury, i.e. it is a Mercury-crossing asteroid. It is also a Venus and Mars-crosser. From 1949 until the discovery of 3200 Phaethon in 1983, it was known as the asteroid that passed closest to the Sun. Since then hundreds of Mercury-crossers have been found, the closest ones are now being 2005 HC4 and (394130) 2006 HY51 (also see List of Mercury-crossing minor planets § List).
caption: Orbital diagram of Icarus