(9739) Powell Inner Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 26 September 1987 by C. S. Shoemaker at Palomar.
James L. Powell (b. 1936), director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and professor of geology for 20 years at Oberlin College, is the author of Night Comes to the Cretaceous, an account of the ideas, theories and personalities evolving around the theory of extraterrestrial impact and demise of the dinosaurs.Naming citation (20000320/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
👶 Powell as a baby name🐶 Powell as a dog name
Where Powell is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Powell is 2.09 au from the Sun and 2.90 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 9739 |
| Provisional designation | 1987 SH7 |
| Orbit class | Inner Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 2.69 km (#15,873 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.808 |
| Rotation period | 109 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.06 |
| Orbital period | 2.70 years |
| Semi-major axis | 1.94 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 1.79 – 2.09 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0788 |
| Inclination | 18.7° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 0.809 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
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All asteroids named after someone called James
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