(8732) Champion Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 8 December 1996 by T. Seki at Geisei.
Born in Texas, Frank Champion (1884-1917) was an aviator who flew to Japan in a wooden airplane. He entertained 100~000 Japanese with his acrobatic stunt flying over Kochi City. But a wing accidentally broke, and he was killed. There is a memorial to him in Kochi.Naming citation (20000124/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Champion is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Champion is 2.39 au from the Sun and 2.77 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 8732 |
| Provisional designation | 1996 XR25 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.2 |
| Orbital period | 3.46 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.29 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.08 – 2.50 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0933 |
| Inclination | 4.68° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.09 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Frank
- (2434) Bateson
- (4772) Frankdrake
- (5251) Bradwood
- (5574) Seagrave
- (7085) Franksienkiewicz
- (7455) Podosek
- (7934) Sinatra
- (8310) Seelos
- (9662) Frankhubbard
- (9681) Sherwoodrowland
- (11689) Frankxu
- (11810) Preusker
All asteroids named after someone called Frank
Also discovered on 8 December 1996
More named asteroids discovered by T. Seki
- (2396) Kochi
- (2571) Geisei
- (2582) Harimaya-Bashi
- (2621) Goto
- (2835) Ryoma
- (2880) Nihondaira
- (2961) Katsurahama
- (3150) Tosa
- (3182) Shimanto
- (3262) Miune
- (3431) Nakano
- (3785) Kitami
← (8731) Tejima · (8733) Ohsugi →