(3922) Heather Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 26 September 1971 by C. Torres at Cerro El Roble.
Named in honor of Heather Couper (b. 1949), British popularizer and promoter of astronomy, on the occasion of her 50th birthday, 1999 June 2. Former Gresham professor of astronomy and a past president of the British Astronomical Association, she regularly appears on radio and television and is the author of more than 25 books. As one of the nine Millennium Commissioners, she is responsible for allocating some 500 million GBP to public science projects in the U.K., including the National Space Centre in Leicester.Naming citation (19990728/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
👶 Heather as a baby name🐶 Heather as a dog name
Where Heather is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Heather is 2.61 au from the Sun and 2.26 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 3922 |
| Provisional designation | 1971 SP3 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 14.0 km (#3,401 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0680 |
| Rotation period | 5.04 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 13.06 |
| Orbital period | 5.56 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.14 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.51 – 3.77 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.199 |
| Inclination | 2.01° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.51 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.