3200 Phaethon
3200 Phaethon (sometimes incorrectly spelled Phaeton) is an Apollo asteroid with unusual properties, and may be an extinct comet.It was discovered by the IRAS infrared space telescope in 1983, and turned out to be the long-sought parent body of the Geminids meteor shower.
Phaethon's name comes from the Greek myth of Phaëton, son of the sun god Helios. This name was chosen because Phaethon has a highly eccentric orbit (e = 0.890) that brings it within 0.15 AU of the Sun (well within the orbit of Mercury. Such high eccentricity is typical of comets, and most meteor showers have a comet as their parent body, but Phaethon does not display a cometary tail.
Phaethon is a B-type asteroid made up of dark material; this too fits well with the theory of its cometary origin. It measures 5.10 km in diameter.
Phaethon will approach relatively close to the Earth on December 14 2093, passing within 0.0194 AU (2.9 million km).