(17712) Fatherwilliam Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 19 November 1997 by Shimizu, Y., Urata, T. at Nachi-Katsuura.
In Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Father William is a character in a poem that a Caterpillar tells Alice to repeat. He is rather old and in the end gets quite annoyed with a youth who, it emerges later in the poem, is his son, and who asks him one question after another.Naming citation (20010309/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Fatherwilliam is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Fatherwilliam is 2.25 au from the Sun and 3.08 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 17712 |
| Provisional designation | 1997 WK7 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 4.42 km (#11,793 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.273 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.01 |
| Orbital period | 3.42 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.27 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.07 – 2.47 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0897 |
| Inclination | 4.38° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.08 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called In
- (5779) Schupmann
- (6136) Gryphon
- (9106) Yatagarasu
- (10128) Bro
- (10132) Lummelunda
- (10285) Renemichelsen
- (10746) Muhlhausen
- (13147) Foglia
- (13647) Rey
- (17768) Tigerlily
- (21328) Otashi
- (23880) Tongil
All asteroids named after someone called In