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Icarus |
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Icarus, in Greek mythologyIcarus: see Daedalus Daedalus , in Greek mythology, craftsman and inventor. After killing his apprentice Talos in envy, he fled from Greece to Crete. There, he arranged the liaison between Pasiphaë and the Cretan Bull that resulted in the Minotaur...... Click the link for more information. . Icarus, in astronomyIcarus, in astronomy: see asteroid asteroid, planetoid, or minor planet, small body orbiting the sun. More than 10,000 asteroids have orbits sufficiently well known to have been cataloged and named; thousands more exist...... Click the link for more information. . Icarus [‚ik·ə·rəs] (astronomy) An asteroid with a highly eccentric orbit (eccentricity of 0.827) that crosses the earth's orbit and takes the asteroid to only 0.187 astronomical units from the sun, closer than Mercury. Icarus Daedalus’s son whose wings disintegrated in flight when approaching the sun. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 126] See : Flying Icarus artificial wings destroyed by flying too close to sun. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 126] See : Rashness Icarus asteroid number 1566. Icarus was discovered by the American astronomer W. Baade in 1949. Its mean distance from the sun is 1.08 astronomical units; its eccentricity, 0.83; and the inclination of its orbit, 23°. Its diameter does not exceed 2 km. Owing to the peculiarities of its orbit, it can approach the earth at a distance of 0.04 astronomical units. It is named for the ancient Greek hero Icarus. Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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