(7805) Moons 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 Michèle Moons (1951-1998), well known for her work on celestial mechanics done at the department of mathematics of Facultés Universitaires N. D. de la Paix, Namur, Belgium. She was assistant editor of the journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy for nearly ten years. In the early 1980s she developed an analytical theory of the libration of the moon that is widely used by several centers interested in analyzing the moon's motion. Her later work included studies on the effects of resonant motion in the minor planet belt. Her early death is a great loss to her family and to science. Citation prepared by J. Henrard and J. Schubart, the name being suggested by the latter.Naming citation (19980610/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

Where Moons is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Moons is 2.37 au from the Sun and 2.02 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	7805
Provisional designation	7610 P-L
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	3.40 km (#14,218 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.383
Absolute magnitude (H)	14.3
Orbital period	3.43 years
Semi-major axis	2.27 au
Perihelion – aphelion	1.97 – 2.58 au
Eccentricity	0.134
Inclination	4.27°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	0.974 au

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

Also named after someone called Michele

All asteroids named after someone called Michele

Also discovered on 17 October 1960

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

All 958

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