The discovery and characterization of a kilometre sized asteroid inside the orbit of Venus

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of (594913) 'Ayl'o'chaxnim, a large, kilometer-sized asteroid entirely within Venus's orbit, challenging existing models of near-Earth asteroid distribution.

Contribution

It is the first confirmed and named asteroid found completely inside Venus's orbit, leading to the proposal of a new asteroid class called 'Ayl'o'chaxnim asteroids.

Findings

Discovery of a 2 km asteroid inside Venus's orbit.

Challenges existing models predicting rarity of such objects.

First officially numbered asteroid within Venus's orbit.

Abstract

Near-Earth asteroid population models predict the existence of bodies located inside the orbit of Venus. Despite searches up to the end of 2019, none had been found. We report discovery and follow-up observations of (594913) 'Ayl\'o'chaxnim, an asteroid with an orbit entirely interior to Venus. (594913) 'Ayl\'o'chaxnim has an aphelion distance of ~0.65 au, is ~2 km in diameter and is red in colour. The detection of such a large asteroid inside the orbit of Venus is surprising given their rarity according to near-Earth asteroid population models. As the first officially numbered and named asteroid located entirely within the orbit of Venus, we propose that the class of interior to Venus asteroids be referred to as 'Ayl\'o'chaxnim asteroids.