(18617) Puntel Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 24 February 1998 by M. Boeuf at Les Tardieux.
Nathalie Puntel (b. 1968) is a young, pretty and cheerful French woman who prefers deep-sky pictures to searches for minor planets.Naming citation (20010309/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Puntel is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Puntel is 2.04 au from the Sun and 3.03 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 18617 |
| Provisional designation | 1998 DY9 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 2.94 km (#15,384 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.391 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.83 |
| Orbital period | 3.13 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.14 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.00 – 2.28 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0649 |
| Inclination | 3.08° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.01 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Nathalie
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