An asteroid discovered by LINEAR in January of 2000, (137924) 2000 BD19 (2000 BD₁₉, also written 2000 BD19) was soon after located by DANEOPS on Palomar plates from February 10, 1997. This allowed a reasonably precise orbit determination, and as a result it was spotted again on February 27, 2001 and January 21, 2002. 2000 BD19 has the closest perihelion of any known asteroid (as of July 2004), at 0.092 AU —38% of Mercury's orbital radius. That and its high eccentricity (0.895) and inclination (25.7°), seem to indicate an inactive or extinct comet.