(7009) Hume Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 21 August 1987 by E. W. Elst at La Silla.

Named in memory of the famous British philosopher David Hume (1711-1776). He started to study law but found it distasteful. In 1744 he became a candidate for the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, but he was not successful, since his opponents found evidence for heresy and even atheism in his Treatise of Human Nature. In 1761 the Vatican put his writings on the Index. Hume regarded himself chiefly as a moralist: “It is our nature to find certain human qualities intrinsically good. However, we can not explain this, since any attempt would take us into the vacuum of metaphysics”.Naming citation (19960828/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

Where Hume is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Hume is 2.56 au from the Sun and 3.48 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	7009
Provisional designation	1987 QU1
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	2.92 km (#15,413 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.274
Absolute magnitude (H)	15.06
Orbital period	3.34 years
Semi-major axis	2.23 au
Perihelion – aphelion	1.84 – 2.63 au
Eccentricity	0.176
Inclination	0.851°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	0.840 au

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

Also discovered on 21 August 1987

More named asteroids discovered by E. W. Elst

All 1035

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