1998 DK36 (also written 1998 DK36) is possibly the first Apohele asteroid (asteroid that is always closer to the Sun than Earth) detected. It was discovered by David J. Tholen, but is now considered lost and does not appear in authoritative catalogs. While its orbital elements have not been well established, its aphelion (farthest distance from Sun) was determined to be less than the Earth's distance to the Sun. Therefore, it has a claim to title "first Apohele detected", if not "first Apohele confirmed", which goes to 2003 CP20. In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names. ... Apohele asteroids are a subclass of Aten asteroids. ... David J. Tholen is an American astronomer. ... Discovered February 11, 2003, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research projects station at Socorro, New Mexico, 2003 CP20 (also written 2003 CP20), was the first asteroid known to have an orbit entirely within that of Earth. ...
During our 1998 February run, we discovered 1998 DV9, another potentially hazardous Apollo-type asteroid with an estimated diameter of 900 meters, as well as 1998DK36, which appears to be the first known object with an orbit entirely inside, but with an aphelion nearly tangent to, the Earth's orbit.
Following-night recovery observations for 1998DK36, made at half the non-sidereal rate for the asteroid, resulted in the discovery of three other fast-moving objects in only 1 square degree of sky coverage.
The higher discovery rate is apparently related to the detection threshold, which was fainter for objects with motion similar to that of 1998DK36.
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