(8941) Junsaito Outer Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 30 January 1997 by T. Kobayashi at Oizumi.
Jun Saito (b. 1962) is a mineralogist and planetologist who has mainly studied achondrite mineralogy. He changed his specialization from meteorite mineralogy to small-body exploration missions and now serves as principal investigator of multi-band imaging of the Hayabusa mission to a minor planet.Naming citation (20031110/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Junsaito is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Junsaito is 3.41 au from the Sun and 4.26 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 8941 |
| Provisional designation | 1997 BL2 |
| Orbit class | Outer Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 18.3 km (#2,448 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0750 |
| Rotation period | 14.0 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 12.25 |
| Orbital period | 5.85 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.25 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 3.08 – 3.41 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0505 |
| Inclination | 11.2° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 2.08 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Jun
All asteroids named after someone called Jun
Also discovered on 30 January 1997
- (8739) Morihisa
- (8942) Takagi
- (8943) Stefanozavka
- (8944) Ortigara
- (11348) Allegra
- (12031) Kobaton
- (15375) Laetitiafoglia
- (20194) Ilarialocantore
- (20195) Mariovinci
- (22467) Koharumi
- (31091) Bettiventicinque
- (46691) Ghezzi