(7010) Locke Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 28 August 1987 by E. W. Elst at La Silla.

Named in memory of the famous British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), initiator of the Age of Enlightenment and Reason in England and France. Although he worked extensively on political ideas, his main concern was with epistemology, noting that human knowledge rests on experience of the external world and on reflection. Mathematical reasoning is deductive and is to be understood in terms of an intellectual intuition of relations between ideas. In his famous Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690), he set down the foundations of an epistemology of modern science. Citation prepared by S. Elst at the request of the discoverer.Naming citation (19961224/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

👶 Locke as a baby name 🐶 Locke as a dog name

Where Locke is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Locke is 2.25 au from the Sun and 2.70 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	7010
Provisional designation	1987 QH3
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	4.15 km (#12,379 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.339
Rotation period	6.78 hours
Absolute magnitude (H)	14.02
Orbital period	3.45 years
Semi-major axis	2.28 au
Perihelion – aphelion	1.97 – 2.60 au
Eccentricity	0.140
Inclination	6.30°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	0.975 au

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

Also discovered on 28 August 1987

More named asteroids discovered by E. W. Elst

All 1035

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