(10231) Penrose Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 29 November 1997 by LINEAR at Socorro.
Roger Penrose (b. 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, and philosopher of science. In 2020, he received half of the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery that black-hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity”. Penrose’s aperiodic tiling presaged the discovery of quasicrystals by Dan Shechtman.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 6, #15, 6), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Penrose is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Penrose is 3.01 au from the Sun and 3.31 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 10231 |
| Provisional designation | 1997 WQ37 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 5.23 km (#10,170 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.240 |
| Rotation period | 3.36 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 13.61 |
| Orbital period | 5.11 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.97 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.78 – 3.16 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0638 |
| Inclination | 4.20° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.79 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
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All asteroids named after someone called Roger