(294727) Dennisritchie Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 31 January 2008 by Glinos, T., Levy, D. H. at Vail-Jarnac.
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (1941-2011) was a computer scientist and winner of the Turing, Hamming Medal and National Medal of Technology awards. He created the C programming language and was co-creator of the UNIX operating system.Naming citation (20120207/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Dennisritchie is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Dennisritchie is 3.59 au from the Sun and 4.05 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 294727 |
| Provisional designation | 2008 BV41 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 15.53 |
| Orbital period | 5.64 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.17 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.60 – 3.73 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.178 |
| Inclination | 9.48° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.63 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Dennis
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- (1978) Patrice
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All asteroids named after someone called Dennis