2101 Adonis
2101 Adonis was one of the first
near-Earth asteroids to be discovered. It was discovered by
Eugene Delporte in
1936 and named after
Adonis, the beautiful youth with whom the goddess
Venus fell in love. Adonis is believed to measure approximately 1 km in diameter.
In the close approach that led to its initial discovery, not enough observations could be made to calculate an orbit, and Adonis was lost until
1977 when it was rediscovered by
Charles T. Kowal.
Adonis was the second
Apollo asteroid to be discovered (after
1862 Apollo itself).
It comes within 30 Gm of the Earth six times in the 21st century, the nearest being 5.3 Gm in 2036.
Adonis makes an appearance in
On a marché sur la Lune (
Explorers on the Moon), one of the
Tintin comic albums. As Tintin and his friends are en route to the moon, Adonis unexpectedly comes perilously close to the spacecraft. During a
spacewalk,
Captain Haddock inadvertently goes into orbit around the asteroid and has to be rescued.
*
Long-lost planet 1936 CA ("Adonis") recovered
