(4955) Gold Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 17 September 1990 by H. E. Holt at Palomar.

Named in honor of Rob Gold (b. 1943), who has made many contributions to space science through numerous spacecraft missions including Ulysses, Geotail, Delta Star and ACE. Rob is currently the payload manager for the NEAR mission, the first spacecraft bound to orbit a minor planet. Rob played a key role in insuring that the six science instruments on NEAR were delivered and integrated on time and under cost for NASA's first Discovery class mission. Name proposed by J. Veverka and citation written by M. Robinson.Naming citation (19990728/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

👶 Gold as a baby name 🐶 Gold as a dog name

Where Gold is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Gold is 3.59 au from the Sun and 4.39 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	4955
Provisional designation	1990 SF2
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	19.8 km (#2,232 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.136
Rotation period	3.41 hours
Absolute magnitude (H)	11.88
Orbital period	5.60 years
Semi-major axis	3.15 au
Perihelion – aphelion	2.72 – 3.59 au
Eccentricity	0.138
Inclination	7.40°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	1.72 au

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

Also named after someone called Rob

All asteroids named after someone called Rob

Also discovered on 17 September 1990

More named asteroids discovered by H. E. Holt

All 119

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