(5439) Couturier Outer Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 14 September 1990 by H. E. Holt at Palomar.

Named in honor of Pierre Couturier (b. 1942), president of the Observatoire de Paris. An expert in coronal heating and solar wind expansion, Couturier was initially a plasma physicist working on the solar wind. He became co-investigator of the radio experiment on the International Comet Explorer, which flew by comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner in 1985. For five years, Couturier was associate director of the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers, and he then became director of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation. Name suggested by M. A. Barucci and M. Fulchignoni, and citation prepared by C. de Bergh.Naming citation (19990728/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

Where Couturier is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Couturier is 4.37 au from the Sun and 5.29 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	5439
Provisional designation	1990 RW
Orbit class	Outer Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	22.1 km (#1,955 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.0760
Rotation period	222 hours
Absolute magnitude (H)	11.93
Orbital period	7.77 years
Semi-major axis	3.92 au
Perihelion – aphelion	3.28 – 4.57 au
Eccentricity	0.165
Inclination	1.22°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	2.26 au

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

Also named after someone called Pierre

All asteroids named after someone called Pierre

Also discovered on 14 September 1990

More named asteroids discovered by H. E. Holt

All 119

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