(4446) Carolyn Outer Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 15 October 1985 by E. Bowell at Anderson Mesa.

Named in honor of Carolyn Spellmann Shoemaker, comet and asteroid discoverer. Shoemaker began searching for asteroids in 1980, using plates taken at the U.K. Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring. She helped develop a new photographic survey program using the 0.46-m Schmidt camera at Palomar Mountain and a newly designed stereomicroscope, which greatly increased the efficiency of film scanning. In 1983 Shoemaker found her first near-Earth asteroid, the Amor object (3199) Nefertiti, and later that year she found her first comet, 1983p. By February 1991 she had discovered 22 comets, at a rate of about one per 100 hours of scanning, and for discoveries recognized in the names of the comets she thus surpassed the tally of W. R. Brooks and moved into the all-time second place behind J.-L. Pons. Shoemaker already holds the record for finding new periodic comets: 9 by early 1991. Citation prepared by D. H. Levy and J. Mueller at the request of the discoverer.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 5, #28, 5), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

👶 Carolyn as a baby name

Where Carolyn is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Carolyn is 4.49 au from the Sun and 4.04 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	4446
Provisional designation	1985 TT
Orbit class	Outer Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	28.6 km (#1,443 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.0860
Rotation period	40.9 hours
Absolute magnitude (H)	11.3
Orbital period	7.95 years
Semi-major axis	3.98 au
Perihelion – aphelion	2.87 – 5.10 au
Eccentricity	0.280
Inclination	7.24°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	1.86 au

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

Also discovered on 15 October 1985

More named asteroids discovered by E. Bowell

All 554

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