(17305) Caniff Outer Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 24 September 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.

Milton Caniff (1907-1988) was a U.S. master cartoonist who created the comic strips Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. His attention to detail gained him the title “the Rembrandt of Comics”. The name was suggested by F. N. Bowman, who found the identification involving this minor planet.Naming citation (20040107/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

Where Caniff is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Caniff is 3.45 au from the Sun and 3.49 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	17305
Provisional designation	4652 P-L
Orbit class	Outer Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	25.4 km (#1,663 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.0480
Rotation period	16.9 hours
Absolute magnitude (H)	11.99
Orbital period	8.01 years
Semi-major axis	4.00 au
Perihelion – aphelion	3.45 – 4.56 au
Eccentricity	0.138
Inclination	6.69°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	2.47 au

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

Also discovered on 24 September 1960

More named asteroids discovered by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T.

All 958

← (17286) Bisei · (17314) Aisakos →