(8889) Mockturtle Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 31 July 1994 by Shimizu, Y., Urata, T. at Nachi-Katsuura.
The Mock Turtle, which appears in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, has a turtle's shell and front flippers, but a cow's head and a cow's back legs and tail. Once he was a Real Turtle. The Mock Turtle has “large eyes full of tears”. In a voice choked with sobs, he sings a song to Alice about soup.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 3, #13, 8), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Mockturtle is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Mockturtle is 2.68 au from the Sun and 1.88 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 8889 |
| Provisional designation | 1994 OC |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 22.8 km (#1,876 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0490 |
| Rotation period | 18.1 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 12.28 |
| Orbital period | 5.30 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.04 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.63 – 3.45 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.134 |
| Inclination | 12.0° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.66 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
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