(4433) Goldstone Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 30 August 1981 by E. Bowell at Anderson Mesa.

Named for the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Southern California's Mojave Desert. Goldstone is part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Deep Space Network, which is managed, technically directed and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology. Since 1962, the DSN has played a critical role in NASA's exploration of the solar system using unmanned spacecraft. The radio antennas at Goldstone and at similar facilities near Canberra, Australia, and Madrid, Spain, are used to receive spacecraft telemetry and to transmit commands to the spacecraft. The largest antenna at Goldstone, Deep Space Station 14, is also used for planetary radar astronomy. It was in 1968 that Goldstone observations of (1566) Icarus, carried out by R. M. Goldstein, yielded the first detection of radar echoes from a minor planet. Name suggested and citation provided by S. J. Ostro.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 4, #9, 4), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

Where Goldstone is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Goldstone is 2.11 au from the Sun and 1.96 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	4433
Provisional designation	1981 QP
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	8.43 km (#6,198 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.143
Rotation period	10.1 hours
Absolute magnitude (H)	13.1
Orbital period	3.79 years
Semi-major axis	2.43 au
Perihelion – aphelion	2.10 – 2.77 au
Eccentricity	0.138
Inclination	9.35°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	1.11 au

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

Also discovered on 30 August 1981

More named asteroids discovered by E. Bowell

All 554

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