(8716) Ginestra Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 23 September 1995 by V. S. Casulli at Colleverde.
Named for a poem by Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), the great poet and philosopher from the Italian Romantic period. Full of astronomical references, his poetry expresses the great sense of bewilderment of post-Copernican man, faced with an infinite variety of worlds of which he is no longer the center, but only infinitesimal and marginal. Nevertheless, the “Ginestra” becomes the symbol of man/flower in the middle of the cosmos/desert, a cosmos sustained by rigid mechanistic laws, indifferent to every desire and human sentiment, existing only to perpetuate the cycle of production and universal destruction. Name suggested and citation prepared by M. Vicoli.Naming citation (19980808/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Ginestra is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Ginestra is 3.26 au from the Sun and 4.07 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 8716 |
| Provisional designation | 1995 SB2 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 9.82 km (#5,215 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0960 |
| Rotation period | 54.9 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 13.48 |
| Orbital period | 5.61 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.16 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.82 – 3.50 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.107 |
| Inclination | 12.8° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.87 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Giacomo
All asteroids named after someone called Giacomo