(9135) Lacaille Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 17 October 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.

Named in memory of Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (1713-1762), French astronomer known as the “father of southern astronomy” for his naming of southern constellations and his countless astrometric observations of planets and stars. In 1750, the abbé Lacaille went to an expedition to the Cape for trigonometric determinations of the lunar and solar parallax, his observations being partly supported by simultaneous measurements by Lalande in Berlin. Lacaille's observations of the southern heavens resulted in a famous catalogue of 9766 stars, a work that was eventually published in 1847 by Baily. Lacaille is also known as a precise observer of comet 1P/Halley in 1759.Naming citation (19990402/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

Where Lacaille is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Lacaille is 2.01 au from the Sun and 2.34 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	9135
Provisional designation	7609 P-L
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Absolute magnitude (H)	15.15
Orbital period	3.51 years
Semi-major axis	2.31 au
Perihelion – aphelion	2.00 – 2.62 au
Eccentricity	0.132
Inclination	6.45°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	0.995 au

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

Also named after someone called Louis

All asteroids named after someone called Louis

Also discovered on 17 October 1960

More named asteroids discovered by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T.

All 958

← (9134) Encke · (9136) Lalande →