2000 BD19
An asteroid discovered by LINEAR in January of 2000, 2000 BD19 (also written 2000 BD19) was soon after located by DANEOPS on Palomar plates from February 10, 1997. This allowed a reasonably precise orbit determination, and as a result it was spotted again on February 27, 2001 and January 21, 2002. 2000 BD19 has the closest perihelion of any known asteroid (as of July 2004), at 0.092 AU —38% of Mercury's orbital radius. That and its high eccentricity (0.895) and inclination (25.7°), seem to indicate an inactive or extinct comet. It hasn't been caught displaying cometary activity so far. One can estimate that 2000 BD19's surface temperature reaches ~1260 K at perihelion, enough to melt silver and nearly enough to melt gold and copper. 2000 BD19 is considered a good candidate for measuring the effects of Albert Einstein's General theory of relativity because of how close it comes to the Sun. When it was discovered, it beat 1995 CR's record for both asteroid with the smallest perihelion and for Aten asteroid with the highest eccentricity. With a high eccentricity, not only does 2000 BD19 get close to the Sun, but it also travels relatively far away from it. It has the third largest aphelion of any Aten asteroid and is one of the few Aten asteroids that is also a Mars crosser.
Reference MPEC 2000-C49
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