Nobody's ever seen it, at least officially, but the fact that December 16 it will be closest to Earth (at around 10 million kilometers, about 30 times the distance Earth-Moon) has already made 3200 Phaethon, an asteroid with a mean diameter of around 5,1 kilometers, accountable for the meteor shower of Geminidis, a star on the web, with some additional little mysteries.

The myth of the unfortunate Phaethon

Phaethon takes its name from a Greek myth, the son of Apollo who to prove his divide bloodline one day drove the Sun's wagon but, being unexperienced, first gone up too high burning part of the sky giving rise to Milky Way, later approached too much the Earth burning the Libya.

The poor Phaethon came to a sticky end: he fot hit by Zeus's lightening, then falling dead on Earth (according some versions of the myth this would link to a great flood), while 3200 Phaethon wuld not cause problems, even if the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union classified it as an asteroid “potentially dangerous” for Earth.

3200 Phaethon, a very special asteroid

3200 Phaethon is the asteroid which gets near the Sun more than any other, reaching a perihelion of just 0,14 astronomical units (less than a half of that of Mercury). And it is the only known asteroid to generate a meteor shower, according to Nasa because once it must have been a comet, which has now lost most of its material, making the external core to emerge.

But it might not be the case: ufologyst Scott Waring claims to have found a photo of 3200 Phaethon, adding that Nasa won't ever admit whether it be the famous asteroid. Why? Because, according to Waring, who claimed he saw the asteroid November 25, thanks to Helioviewer, the object, which looks very similar to a disc (according to Nasa its thickness shouldn't be over 200 meters), should be much bigger than so far stated, with a diameter of around 8 kilometers, or have at least a much bigger thickness, around 2,55 kilometers.

A discovery carrying so many questions

Is it possible that Waring was wrong and that what he saw with Helioviewer is not 3200 Phaethon, but then, asks ufologyst, how is it possible that an object of this magnitude, passing across the Sun, has never been seen or at least reported? Moreover: how can it remain dark (therefore relatively cold) passing so near the Sun?

Might it be something very different from the asteroid which scientists officially known? Could it be an alien starship or an unidentified flying object (UFO) nature of which we are not able to truly know anything? Waring's discovery seems to provided much more questions than answers it's able to give.