(9660) Brucewillis Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 22 March 1996 by NEAT at Haleakala.

Bruce Willis (b. 1955) is an American actor famous for playing John McClane in the Die Hard movie series. He significantly raised public awareness of planetary defense with his lead role in the 1998 film Armageddon, which remains the go-to pop culture reference for media stories about the possibility of comet or asteroid impacts with Earth.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 6, #6, 7), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

Where Brucewillis is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Brucewillis is 3.40 au from the Sun and 2.71 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	9660
Provisional designation	1996 FW4
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	13.7 km (#3,498 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.0660
Absolute magnitude (H)	13.03
Orbital period	5.67 years
Semi-major axis	3.18 au
Perihelion – aphelion	2.76 – 3.59 au
Eccentricity	0.131
Inclination	2.04°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	1.76 au

Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.

Also named after someone called Bruce

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Also discovered on 22 March 1996

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