7794 Sanvito
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | U. Munari and M. Tombelli |
| Discovery site | Cima Ekar |
| Discovery date | 15 January 1996 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | 7794 |
| 1996 AD4 | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 12932 days (35.41 yr) |
| Aphelion | 2.6423924 AU (395.29628 Gm) |
| Perihelion | 1.9604680 AU (293.28184 Gm) |
| 2.301430 AU (344.2890 Gm) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1481523 |
| 3.49 yr (1275.2 d) | |
| 82.03385° | |
| 0° 16m 56.272s / day | |
| Inclination | 5.671372° |
| 221.43758° | |
| 86.38022° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.953945 AU (142.7081 Gm) |
| Jupiter MOID | 2.5881 AU (387.17 Gm) |
| Jupiter Tisserand parameter | 3.570 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 14.0 | |
|
| |
7794 Sanvito (1996 AD4) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on January 15, 1996 by Ulisse Munari and Maura Tombelli at the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory at Cima Ekar ridge near Asiago, Italy. It was named in honor of Roberto di San Vito, an Italian amateur astronomer. San Vito is supporting a new observatory in Montelupo that will bear his name, the San Vito Observatory.[1]
In the "Sources" section of the science fiction novel 3001: The Final Odyssey, the author, Arthur C. Clarke, jokingly refers to a prediction he made in the first book of the series, 2001: A Space Odyssey (published in 1968), of an Asteroid 7794 being discovered by a "lunar observatory" in 1997.[2] This asteroid had a projectile fired at it by the spaceship Discovery as it passed by on its way to Saturn so that instruments aboard the Discovery might analyze the asteroid's composition.
References
- 1 2 "7794 Sanvito (1996 AD4)". JPL Small-Body Database. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- ↑ Clarke, Arthur Charles (1997). 3001: The Final Odyssey. London: HarperCollins. p. 261. ISBN 0-586-06624-1.
