Focus On: (1566) Icarus

Basics

Class: S-type/Q-type asteroid
Location: Near Earth, Apollo group
Orbit length (approx): 1.12 years
Discovered: 27th June 1949, 05:44 UTC, from Palomar Observatory, CA, by Walter Baade.
Notes: Icarus has an extremely eccentric orbit (0.83) and measures approximately 1.4 km in diameter. In 1968, it became the first asteroid ever observed by radar. Lowest numbered potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA).
Events at time of discovery:

• June 27 – The 1949 Australian coal strike began.
• – The Liberal Party of Canada led by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was easily returned to power in the Canadian federal election.
• – Czechoslovakia banned pastoral letters and meetings of Catholic church officials that were not approved by the government.
• – The science fiction TV series Captain Video and His Video Rangers premiered.
• – Birth of Vera Wang, American fashion designer
• – Birth of Stephen Rucker, television and film composer

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Naming information

Name origin: Cretan mortal, son of the great craftsman Daedalus
Mythology: Daedalus built the Labyrinth on Crete for King Minos, and ended up being imprisoned there with Icarus. He fashioned wings held together with beeswax for himself and his son in order to escape the island. Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea, but to follow his own safe path of flight. Overcome by giddiness while flying, Icarus disobeyed his father and came too close to the sun, and the heat melted the beeswax. He fell into the sea and drowned. Today, the supposed site of his burial on the island bears his name, Icaria, and the sea nearby in which he drowned is called the Icarian Sea.

Daedalus, Icarus, Queen Pasiphaë, and two of her attendants in a Roman mosaic from Zeugma, Commagene. Photo by Dosseman.

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Astrological data

Discovery degree: 12+ Sagittarius
Discovery Sabian: A Widow's Past Brought to Light
Discovery nodal signature: Cancer-Scorpio
Estimated orbital resonances: Mercury 3:14, Venus 6:11, Earth 8:9, Mars 17:9
Discovery chart details: New phase chart. Icarus was opposite Mercury and Mars, and sextile Pluto. Sedna was conjunct the North Node and square Venus. Mars was trine Neptune; Saturn sextile Uranus; the Moon conjunct Juno and Ceres square Chiron. Cancer stellium.

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Summary and references

Meanings offered include rash, reckless actions, failing to heed good advice, the exuberance of youth, impetuosity^[1]; self-regulation and maintaining physical balance without going to extremes^[2]; the principle of risk-taking, keeping composure^[3]; 'need for speed' and the impulse to break out or break away^[4]; direct but dangerous path to liberation, gaining freedom from physically confining situations, social conformity or (ultimately) samsara^[5].

References:
1) Alex Miller: Icarus 1566
2) Amable: (1566) Icarus
3) Kirsti Melto: New Moon in Capricorn – December 27, 2008
4) Martha Lang-Wescott: Basic Resources
5) Demetra George & Douglas Bloch: Asteroid Goddesses (Ibis Press, 2003)

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Discovery chart for (1566) Icarus: 27th June 1949, 05:44 UTC, from Palomar Observatory, CA.