2007 MK6

Near-Earth asteroid November 2025 yes 2007 MK 6 #FFC2E0 Discoverer not yet assigned by the MPC 27 May 2006 (First reported obs.) 2007 MK 6 2006 KT 67 NEOApollo 21 November 2025 (JD 2461000.5) 0 1.9661 AU 0.1959 AU 1.0810 AU 0.8188 1.1239 yr (410.518 d) 25.1246° 92.846° 25.514° 180.477° 0.8769° / d 0.0869 AU 5.287 180 m (calculated)189 0.40 (assumed)189 20.18 2007 MK 6 is a small, unnamed near-Earth asteroid on a highly eccentric Apollo-type orbit. First reported on 27 May 2006 by Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, United States, it was lost until it was recovered a year later by Catalina Sky Survey. It forms an asteroid pair with 1566 Icarus, and the two share similar orbital elements, having likely separated within the past 10 million years. History 2007 MK 6 was first detected on 27 May 2006 by Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, United States. It was given the provisional designation 2006 KT 67 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), and its detection was announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular (MPEC) that same day. Observations extended one day earlier to 26 May, but with a single-day observation arc the asteroid became lost. On 21 June 2007, the asteroid was recovered by Catalina Sky Survey, and its detection was announced in an MPEC on 23 June. At that time it was not recognized as the same object observed by Mount Lemmon in 2006, and it was given a different provisional designation 2007 MK 6. Soon after, a team of astronomers led by Katsuhito Ohtsuka linked 2007 MK 6 with 2006 KT 67, and the identification was released in an MPEC on 28 June. 2007 MK 6 remains its primary provisional designation. 2025, the asteroid has not been numbered or named by the MPC. It also has not been formally assigned a discoverer, which will happen once it is numbered. Orbit thumb|left|A diagram of 2007 MK 6's highly eccentric orbit in the inner Solar System. 2007 MK 6 is classified as a near-Earth asteroid (NEA), orbiting the Sun at an average distance—its semi-major axis—of 1.08 astronomical units (AU). Due to its high eccentricity of 0.82, its distance from the Sun varies greatly. At perihelion, it comes within 0.20 AU, closer than Mercury's orbit. At aphelion, it moves as far as 1.97 AU. Since it crosses Earth's orbit and has a semi-major axis greater than 1 AU, it is also classified as an Apollo asteroid. It takes 1.12 years to complete one revolution around the Sun, and its orbit is inclined by 25.12° with respect to the ecliptic plane. Relation to 1566 Icarus 2007 MK 6 forms an asteroid pair with another NEA, 1566 Icarus. Icarus is a 1.44 km mi sized NEA on a highly eccentric orbit,12 and its orbital properties are similar to those of 2007 MK 6. The pair was identified in a 2007 study led by Ohtsuka after surveying NEAs for a potential relation to Icarus. 1 Although the two occasionally encounter Earth and Venus, the effects on their orbits are small enough to maintain a relatively stable secular evolution of their orbital elements. The time of separation of the two asteroids is unknown, but Icarus's classification as a Q-type asteroid, which tend to weather rapidly, places a maximum age of 10 million years (Myr). The parent object of the two asteroids was likely injected into the inner Solar System around that time.3–4 Icarus's rapid rotation period of 2.27 hours lies near the roughly 2.2 hour spin barrier,3198 below which a strengthless rubble pile asteroid would self-destruct due to the centrifugal force.4240 This implies that 2007 MK 6 may have fissioned from Icarus as long as the parent body was a weakly-bound rubble pile, as is common for kilometer-sized asteroids.198 Thermal stress could have contributed to the breakup of the pair's parent body, as its very low perihelion would lead to temperatures reaching 800 K C flip at the subsolar point.1 Physical characteristics Assuming 2007 MK 6 has a geometric albedo similar to Icarus's, it is estimated to be 180 m ft in size and no greater than several hundred meters in size.1963 See also List of Mercury-crossing minor planets Other NEA groups: 3200 Phaethon – a highly eccentric asteroid that hosts an asteroid group with (155140) 2005 UD and (225416) 1999 YC 2017 SN 16 and 2018 RY 7 – an asteroid pair currently participating in a 3:5 mean-motion resonance with Venus Notes References 2007 MK6 = 2006 KT67 https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=2007+MK6 Minor Planet Center 13 November 2025 (424 obs) 2025-07-01 last obs. JPL Small-Body Database Lookup: (2007 MK6) https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=2007%20MK6 Jet Propulsion Laboratory 13 November 2025 MPEC 2006-K62 : 2006 KT67 https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K06/K06K62.html Minor Planet Center Staff Minor Planet Electronic Circular Minor Planet Center 2006MPEC....K...62C 2006-K62 27 May 2006 14 November 2025 MPEC 2007-M32 : 2007 MK6 https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K07/K07M32.html Minor Planet Center Staff Minor Planet Electronic Circular Minor Planet Center 2007MPEC....M...32F 2007-M32 23 June 2007 14 November 2025 MPEC 2007-M49 : 2007 MK6 = 2006 KT67 https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K07/K07M49.html Minor Planet Center Staff Minor Planet Electronic Circular Minor Planet Center 2007MPEC....M...49O 2007-M49 28 June 2007 14 November 2025 NEO Groups NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/groups.html https://web.archive.org/web/20020202160655/http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/groups.html dead 2002-02-02 2012-06-04 David R. Williams Mercury Fact Sheet https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html NASA April 19, 2021 November 25, 2020 April 3, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190403160651/https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/mercuryfact.html live Pereira W. et al. Photometric characterization of near-Earth objects from OASI and CASLEO observations 6 October 2025 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 543 4 4235–4253 10.1093/mnras/staf1701 free 6 Adam H. Greenberg Jean-Luc Margot Ashok K. Verma Patrick A. Taylor Shantanu P. Naidu Marina. Brozovic Lance A. M. Benner March 2017 Asteroid 1566 Icarus's Size, Shape, Orbit, and Yarkovsky Drift from Radar Observations The Astronomical Journal 153 3 16 2017AJ....153..108G 10.3847/1538-3881/153/3/108 1612.07434 28388555 free Kasuga Toshihiro Jewitt David Ryabova Galina O. Asher David J. Campbell-Brown Margaret D. Meteoroids October 2019 Cambridge University Press 9781108606462 8 – Asteroid–Meteoroid Complexes 10.1017/9781108606462.015 2019msme.book..187K 2010.16079 Ohtsuka K. Arakida H. Ito T. Kasuga T. Watanabe J. Kinoshita D. Sekiguchi T. Ahser D. J. Nakano S. Apollo Asteroids 1566 Icarus and 2007 MK 6: Icarus Family Members? October 2007 Icarus 668 1 L71–L74 10.1086/522589 0708.2825 2007ApJ...668L..71O External links 2007MK6 2007MK6 2007 MK6 Astronomy Outer Space # Category:Mercury-crossing asteroids Category:Venus-crossing asteroids Category:Minor planet object articles (unnumbered) 20060517