(10659) Sauerland Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 26 March 1971 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
The Sauerland has fairly high mountains, such as Kahler Asten at 840 m, and is partly a nature reserve. It lies just east of the German industrial Rhine-Ruhr region. The area is frequented by hikers during summer and by skiers and tobogganers during winter.Naming citation (20030501/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Sauerland is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Sauerland is 2.84 au from the Sun and 3.44 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 10659 |
| Provisional designation | 3266 T-1 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 7.46 km (#7,139 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0660 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.23 |
| Orbital period | 5.63 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.16 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.79 – 3.54 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.119 |
| Inclination | 0.829° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.79 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also discovered on 26 March 1971
- (5195) Kaendler
- (5491) Kaulbach
- (5492) Thoma
- (5698) Nolde
- (6202) Georgemiley
- (6257) Thorvaldsen
- (6351) Neumann
- (6429) Brancusi
- (6674) Cezanne
- (6752) Ashley
- (7367) Giotto
- (7908) Zwingli