asteroid 4179 Toutatis
E918823
Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is a near-Earth, tumbling, elongated asteroid known for its close approaches to Earth and detailed radar imaging that revealed its distinctive contact-binary shape.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| asteroid 4179 Toutatis canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11317319 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: asteroid 4179 Toutatis Context triple: [Evpatoria planetary radar, observes, asteroid 4179 Toutatis]
-
A.
asteroid 1000 Piazzia
Asteroid 1000 Piazzia is a main-belt asteroid named in honor of Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, the discoverer of Ceres.
-
B.
Bennu
Bennu is an ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the sun, creation, and rebirth, often seen as a precursor or counterpart to the Greek phoenix.
-
C.
asteroid Apophis
Asteroid Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid famous for its close approaches to our planet and for being closely studied as a potential impact hazard.
-
D.
asteroid 1930 Lucifer
Asteroid 1930 Lucifer is a main-belt asteroid named "Lucifer," discovered in 1964 and known for its somewhat ominous designation rather than any unusual physical properties.
-
E.
asteroid 1943 Anteros
Asteroid 1943 Anteros is a near-Earth Apollo-group asteroid notable for its relatively close approaches to Earth and its role in studies of asteroid orbits and compositions.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: asteroid 4179 Toutatis Target entity description: Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is a near-Earth, tumbling, elongated asteroid known for its close approaches to Earth and detailed radar imaging that revealed its distinctive contact-binary shape.
-
A.
asteroid 1000 Piazzia
Asteroid 1000 Piazzia is a main-belt asteroid named in honor of Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, the discoverer of Ceres.
-
B.
Bennu
Bennu is an ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the sun, creation, and rebirth, often seen as a precursor or counterpart to the Greek phoenix.
-
C.
asteroid Apophis
Asteroid Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid famous for its close approaches to our planet and for being closely studied as a potential impact hazard.
-
D.
asteroid 1930 Lucifer
Asteroid 1930 Lucifer is a main-belt asteroid named "Lucifer," discovered in 1964 and known for its somewhat ominous designation rather than any unusual physical properties.
-
E.
asteroid 1943 Anteros
Asteroid 1943 Anteros is a near-Earth Apollo-group asteroid notable for its relatively close approaches to Earth and its role in studies of asteroid orbits and compositions.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Apollo asteroid
ⓘ
contact binary ⓘ minor planet ⓘ near-Earth asteroid ⓘ potentially hazardous asteroid ⓘ |
| absoluteMagnitude_H | 15.3 ⓘ |
| albedo | 0.13 ⓘ |
| aphelionDistance_au | 4.12 ⓘ |
| approachType | Earth-crossing ⓘ |
| approximateDimensions_km | 4.6 × 2.4 × 1.9 ⓘ |
| argumentOfPerihelion_deg | 278.7 ⓘ |
| ascendingNodeLongitude_deg | 128.3 ⓘ |
| belongsTo | Solar System NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| closeApproachTarget |
Earth
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Mars NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| closeApproachToEarth |
1992-12-08
ⓘ
1996-11-29 ⓘ 2004-09-29 ⓘ 2012-12-12 ⓘ |
| discoverer | Christian Pollas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| discoveryCountry | France NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| discoveryDate | 1989-01-04 ⓘ |
| discoverySite | Caussols Observatory NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| eccentricity | 0.63 ⓘ |
| flybyDate | 2012-12-13 ⓘ |
| hasChaoticRotation | true ⓘ |
| imagedBySpacecraft | Chang'e 2 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| inclination_deg | 0.45 ⓘ |
| minimumOrbitIntersectionDistance_au | 0.006 ⓘ |
| mpcNumber | 4179 ⓘ |
| namedAfter |
Teutates
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Toutatis NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableCloseApproachDistance_au | 0.0104 GENERATED ⓘ |
| orbitalClass | Apollo group NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| orbitalPeriod_years | 4.02 ⓘ |
| orbitingBody | Sun NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| perihelionDistance_au | 0.94 ⓘ |
| provisionalDesignation | 1989 AC NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| radarImagingRevealed |
bilobate shape
ⓘ
distinct neck region ⓘ |
| radarObservedBy |
Arecibo Observatory
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| rotationPeriod_longAxis_hours | 5.4 ⓘ |
| rotationPeriod_precession_hours | 7.4 ⓘ |
| rotationState |
non-principal axis rotation
ⓘ
tumbling ⓘ |
| semiMajorAxis_au | 2.53 ⓘ |
| shape |
contact-binary
ⓘ
elongated ⓘ |
| spectralType | S-type asteroid ⓘ |
| visitedBy | Chang'e 2 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: asteroid 4179 Toutatis Description of subject: Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is a near-Earth, tumbling, elongated asteroid known for its close approaches to Earth and detailed radar imaging that revealed its distinctive contact-binary shape.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.