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The discoverer has assigned to this unusual planet the name of the mythological boy who escaped imprisonment on wings of wax, but he flew too near the Sun and they melted, so that he fell into the sea. (M347)

Name suggested by R. C. Cameron and Dr. Folkman.

This is the first minor planet which was observed (in 1968) by radar. Icarus, like his father Daedalus {see planet  (1864)}, is also honored by a lunar crater.