1866 Sisyphus is a binary Apollo asteroid

Apollo asteroid

The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group to be discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth...

 which, at approximately 10 km in diameter, is the largest of the Earth-crossing asteroids

Earth-crosser asteroid

An Earth-crosser is a near-Earth asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Earth as observed from the ecliptic pole of Earth's orbit. The known numbered Earth-crossers are listed here. Those Earth-crossers whose semi-major axes are smaller than Earth's are Aten asteroids; the remaining ones are Apollo...

. It is comparable in size to the Chicxulub

Chicxulub Crater

The Chicxulub crater is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is located near the town of Chicxulub, after which the crater is named...

 object whose impact may have killed off

Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event

The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, formerly named and still commonly referred to as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, occurred approximately 65.5 million years ago at the end of the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period. It was a large-scale mass extinction of animal and plant...

 the dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s.

Sisyphus was discovered in 1972 by Paul Wild

Paul Wild (Swiss astronomer)

Professor Paul Wild of Berne, Switzerland, is an astronomer who discovered numerous comets and asteroids.- Career :Professor Wild was director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Berne from 1980 to 1991...

, and named after the Sisyphus

Sisyphus

In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity...

 of Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

.

This Apollo asteroid

Apollo asteroid

The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group to be discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth...

will reach apparent magnitude of 10.0 on November 26th, 2071 when it will be a mere 0.116 A.U. (17.4 million kilometers) from Earth (when it was discovered it peaked at magnitude 9.0 in November 25th, 1972), being one of the brightest of its class.