2062 Aten

2062 Aten (/ˈɑːtən/) is an asteroid that was discovered at the Palomar Mountain Observatory by Eleanor F. Helin, who was the principal scientist for the NEAT (Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking) project until she retired in 2002. It is named after Aten, the Egyptian god of the solar disk.

Aten was the first asteroid found to have a semi-major orbital axis of less than one astronomical unit. A new category of asteroids was thus created, the Atens. As of July 2004 about 16 Atens were numbered and some 212 were provisional, the unnumbered Atens ranged from what was then 1989 VA to 2004 MD₆.

References

External links