SpazeRock comet, B-type
Phaethon
The source of the Geminid meteor shower. It swings closer to the Sun than Mercury and sheds dust when it does.
- Size
- 6 km
- Orbit
- 522.8 days
- Distance from Sun
- 0.1 to 2.4 AU
- Day
- 3.6 hours
- Reflects
- 11% of sunlight
Can we live on Phaethon?
Air: only a faint trace of Na (at perihelion), far too thin to breathe. You’d live in sealed, pressurised habitats.
Ground: Dark rock baked at 750 °C near the Sun.
Atmosphere
- Na (at perihelion)
Measured by SOHO, Parker