The 1566 Icarus reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

1566 Icarus

1566 Icarus is an Apollo asteroid whose unusual characteristic is that at perihelion it is closer to the Sun than Mercury.

It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun.

It was discovered in 1948 by Walter Baade.

An asteroid named Icarus plays a major role in Gregory Benford's classic science fiction novel In the Ocean of Night.

Icarus flies past earth every 19 years. The last was in 1997. Often it comes as close as 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers). It is a near-Earth asteroid.

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