(12634) LOFAR Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 26 March 1971 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
LOFAR (LOw-Frequency ARray), a novel radio telescope, proposed by Leiden astronomer George Miley and inaugurated in 2010, consists of tens of thousands of individual low-frequency antennas, distributed over north-western Europe, with its core region in the Netherlands.Naming citation (MPC batch dated 2014-02-14), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where LOFAR is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: LOFAR is 2.80 au from the Sun and 2.33 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 12634 |
| Provisional designation | 3178 T-1 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Rotation period | 3.34 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 15.66 |
| Orbital period | 3.79 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.43 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.06 – 2.80 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.153 |
| Inclination | 2.55° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.05 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also discovered on 26 March 1971
- (5195) Kaendler
- (5491) Kaulbach
- (5492) Thoma
- (5698) Nolde
- (6202) Georgemiley
- (6257) Thorvaldsen
- (6351) Neumann
- (6429) Brancusi
- (6674) Cezanne
- (6752) Ashley
- (7367) Giotto
- (7908) Zwingli