1566 Icarus

1566 Icarus is an Apollo asteroid (a sub-class of near-Earth asteroid). At its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) it is closer to the Sun than Mercury. In its orbit it crosses the orbits of Mercury, Venus and Mars. It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun. The asteroid was found in 1949 by Walter Baade.

Icarus makes a close approach to Earth at gaps of 9, 19, or 38 years. Sometimes, it comes as close as 6.4 Gm (16 lunar distances and 4 million miles), as it did on June 14, 1968. The last close approach was in 1996, at 15.1 Gm, about 40 times as far as the Moon. The most recent close approach was on June 16, 2015, 8.1 Gm (5 million miles).

In 1967, Paul Sandorff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave his students the task of making a plan to destroy Icarus, if it was going to hit the Earth. This plan is known as Project IcarusProject Icarus, MIT Report No. 13, MIT Press 1968, edited by Louis A. Kleiman. "Interdepartmental Student Project in Systems Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Spring Term, 1967". (which was the basis for the 1979 science fiction film Meteor, starring Sean Connery).

 References 

 Other websites 
 NeoDys Object Listing: orbital elements and list of close approaches
 Article on TheSpaceReview.com about Project Icarus

Icarus