(8310) Seelos Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 9 August 1996 by NEAT at Haleakala.
Named in honor of Frank P. Seelos IV who, as a student at Wolford College, participated in the 1998 CalTech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow program. He assisted and carried out research with the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and developed the software package HAVANA, which rapidly accesses images of specified objects from the extensive observational archive available. Frank is an outstanding student with a double major in physics and mathematics.Naming citation (19990202/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Seelos is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Seelos is 2.30 au from the Sun and 3.14 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 8310 |
| Provisional designation | 1996 PL2 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 3.51 km (#13,936 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.329 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.53 |
| Orbital period | 3.55 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.33 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.17 – 2.49 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0696 |
| Inclination | 5.14° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.18 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
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