8373 Stephengould (1992 AB) is an outer main-belt binary asteroid[5] discovered on 1 January 1992 by Carolyn S. Shoemaker and Eugene Merle Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory.[1] The asteroid was named after the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The asteroid has a very high inclination, having the second highest inclination of any of the first 10,000 discovered asteroids in the asteroid belt, after 2938 Hopi.
Discovery[1] | |
---|---|
Discovered by | |
Discovery site | Palomar |
Discovery date | 1 January 1992 |
Designations | |
(8373) Stephengould | |
Named after | Stephen Jay Gould |
1992 AB | |
Orbital characteristics[4][2] | |
Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
Observation arc | 8844 days (24.21 yr) |
Aphelion | 5.09996 AU (762.943 Gm) |
Perihelion | 1.45970 AU (218.368 Gm) |
3.27983 AU (490.656 Gm) | |
Eccentricity | 0.554947 |
5.94 yr (2169.6 d) | |
358.004° | |
0° 9m 57.352s / day | |
Inclination | 40.7923° |
88.8722° | |
55.5019° | |
Known satellites | 1 |
Jupiter MOID | 1.4741 AU (220.52 Gm) |
TJupiter | 2.587 |
Physical characteristics | |
4.435 h (0.1848 d) | |
14.0 | |
Stephengould is one of few strongly unstable asteroids located near the 2:1 mean motion resonance with the gas giant Jupiter, that corresponds to one of the prominent Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt.[3]
The asteroid has a moon orbiting it, discovered in 2010 with an orbital period of 1 day, 10 hours, and 9 minutes.[5]