1989 ML is an as yet unnamed near-Earth asteroid. It is approximately 0.6 km in diameter. An Amor asteroid

Amor asteroid

The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the asteroid 1221 Amor. They approach the orbit of the Earth from beyond, but do not cross it. Most Amors do cross the orbit of Mars...

, it orbits between Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 and Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

. It is an X-type asteroid

X-type asteroid

The X-group of asteroids collects together several types with similar spectra, but probably quite different compositions.-Tholen classification:In the Tholen classification the X-group contains the types:* E-type* M-type, the largest grouping* P-type...

, so its surface composition is yet unknown. It was discovered by Eleanor F. Helin

Eleanor F. Helin

Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Some sources give her name as Eleanor Kay Helin...

 and Jeff T. Alu

Jeff T. Alu

Jeffrey Thomas Alu is an American musician, photographer, graphic artist, and amateur astronomer.He has discovered numerous asteroids. He also co-discovered the periodic comets 117P/Helin-Roman-Alu and 132P/Helin-Roman-Alu. The asteroid 4104 Alu was named in his honour.-External links:*...

 at Palomar Observatory

Palomar Observatory

Palomar Observatory is a privately owned observatory located in San Diego County, California, southeast of Pasadena's Mount Wilson Observatory, in the Palomar Mountain Range. At approximately elevation, it is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology...

 on June 29, 1989.

The Delta-v

Delta-v

In astrodynamics a Δv or delta-v is a scalar which takes units of speed. It is a measure of the amount of "effort" that is needed to change from one trajectory to another by making an orbital maneuver....

 ('effort') required to reach 1989 ML from a low-Earth orbit is only 4.8 km/s, ranking fifth (as of March 2007) amongst the near-Earth asteroids with well-established orbits. 1989 ML is thus particularly 'easy' (and 'cheap') to reach by spacecraft.

1989 ML was considered as a target of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa

Hayabusa

was an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis....

 (then Muses-C) but had to be given up due to technical reasons. It was also considered by the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

 as a candidate target for the Don Quijote

Don Quijote (space probe)

Don Quijote is a proposed space probe under development by the European Space Agency, which would study the effects of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid. The mission is intended to test whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth...

mission to study the effects of impacting a spacecraft into an asteroid; however, they too changed to other targets.http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/NEO/SEMVXVB1S6F_0.html

External links

• Near-Earth asteroid Delta-v ranking, 1989 ML ranks fourth among the numbered asteroids