(10646) Machielalberts Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 26 September 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
Machiel Alberts (b. 1909) was the first astronomer in The Netherlands to succeed, with a home-built camera, to capture a meteor on film. He was actively engaged in meteor observations, as well as in building appliances and instruments for amateur astronomers to enable meteor photography and other types of meteor observation.Naming citation (20010804/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Machielalberts is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Machielalberts is 2.08 au from the Sun and 3.08 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 10646 |
| Provisional designation | 2077 P-L |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 4.47 km (#11,699 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.264 |
| Rotation period | 2.97 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.08 |
| Orbital period | 3.37 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.25 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 1.95 – 2.55 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.133 |
| Inclination | 3.38° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 0.936 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also discovered on 26 September 1960
- (1778) Alfven
- (4386) Lust
- (4412) Chephren
- (6145) Riemenschneider
- (7720) Lepaute
- (8435) Anser
- (9251) Harch
- (9479) Madresplazamayo
- (9694) Lycomedes
- (9906) Tintoretto
- (10244) Thuringer Wald
- (12616) Lochner
More named asteroids discovered by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T.
- (1743) Schmidt
- (1744) Harriet
- (1776) Kuiper
- (1777) Gehrels
- (1778) Alfven
- (1795) Woltjer
- (1808) Bellerophon
- (1809) Prometheus
- (1810) Epimetheus
- (1811) Bruwer
- (1812) Gilgamesh
- (1813) Imhotep
← (10645) Brac · (10647) Meesters →