(17472) Dinah Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 17 March 1991 by Niijima, T., Urata, T. at Ojima.
Dinah is Alice's cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The cat never appears in the story, but Alice thinks about her and talks about her to the creatures she meets in Wonderland, frightening some of them by telling how good Dinah is at catching mice and small birds.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 3, #13, 9), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
👶 Dinah as a baby name🐶 Dinah as a dog name🐱 Dinah as a cat name
Where Dinah is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Dinah is 2.23 au from the Sun and 3.05 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 17472 |
| Provisional designation | 1991 FY |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 4.19 km (#12,289 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.304 |
| Rotation period | 15.2 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.13 |
| Orbital period | 3.57 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.34 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.20 – 2.47 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0565 |
| Inclination | 8.36° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.22 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Lewis
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All asteroids named after someone called Lewis
Also discovered on 17 March 1991
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- (5749) Urduja
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- (5968) Trauger
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- (6486) Anitahill
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