The Apollo

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...

, Venus-

Venus-crosser asteroid

A Venus-crosser is an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Venus. The known numbered Venus-crossers and outer-grazers are listed below .Venus also has a quasi-satellite, 2002 VE68...

 and Mars-crosser asteroid

Mars-crosser asteroid

A Mars-crosser is an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars. The known numbered Mars-crossers are listed here. They include the two numbered Mars trojans 5261 Eureka and ....

 2063 Bacchus (icon ) was discovered on April 24, 1977, by Charles T. Kowal

Charles T. Kowal

Charles Thomas Kowal was an American astronomer.He discovered two moons of Jupiter: Leda in 1974 and Themisto in 1975, although the latter was lost and not rediscovered until 2000....

 at the 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...

. In March 1996 radar observations

Radar astronomy

Radar astronomy is a technique of observing nearby astronomical objects by reflecting microwaves off target objects and analyzing the echoes. This research has been conducted for six decades. Radar astronomy differs from radio astronomy in that the latter is a passive observation and the former an...

 of the asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 were conducted at the Goldstone Observatory under the direction of JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...

 scientists Steven Ostro and Lance Benner, allowing the construction of a model of the object. Optical observations were conducted by Petr Pravec

Petr Pravec

Petr Pravec is a Czech astronomer, born in Třinec, a prolific discoverer of binary asteroids using lightcurve photometric studies. He is leading the effort of a large consortium of stations called BinAst to look for multiplicity in the NEA and inner main-belt populations...

, Marek Wolf

Marek Wolf

Marek Wolf is a Czech astronomer, currently the head the Astronomický ústav, Univerzita Karlova v Praze ....

, and Lenka Šarounová

Lenka Šarounová

Lenka Kotková is a Czech astronomer.She is a prolific discoverer of asteroids. She works at Observatoř Ondřejov , located near Prague...

 during March and April 1996.

The asteroid is about 1.11×0.53×0.50 km in size and has a bilobate shape. It is classified as a Q-type asteroid

Q-type asteroid

Q-type asteroids are relatively uncommon inner-belt asteroids with a strong, broad 1 micrometre olivine and pyroxene feature, and a spectral slope that indiciates the presence of metal...

.

Its name derives from the Roman god Bacchus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

.

External links

• Asteroid Radar Group page