(117329) Spencer Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 9 December 2004 by Jarnac at Vail-Jarnac.
Henry Spencer (b. 1955) is a Canadian computer scientist and small-satellite engineer. He has been a pioneer of open-source software, including C News and the “regex” pattern-matching library. He is also the keeper of the oldest surviving Usenet archives and the software architect for the MOST astronomy satellite.Naming citation (20060809/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
👶 Spencer as a baby name🐶 Spencer as a dog name🐱 Spencer as a cat name
Where Spencer is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Spencer is 2.74 au from the Sun and 1.75 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 117329 |
| Provisional designation | 2004 XJ6 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 2.96 km (#15,320 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0880 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 16.16 |
| Orbital period | 3.80 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.43 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.05 – 2.82 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.159 |
| Inclination | 6.92° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.07 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Henry
- (4384) Henrybuhl
- (5891) Gehrig
- (9016) Henrymoore
- (10557) Rowland
- (10637) Heimlich
- (10753) van de Velde
- (12727) Cavendish
- (13806) Darmstrong
- (17857) Hsieh
- (18979) Henryfong
- (19454) Henrymarr
- (27365) Henryfitz
All asteroids named after someone called Henry
Also discovered on 9 December 2004
- (129101) Geoffcollyer
- (129108) Kristianwaldorff
- (129114) Oliverwalthall
- (134044) Chrisshinohara
- (134050) Rebeccaghent
- (134063) Damianhammond
- (134081) Johnmarshall
- (134087) Symeonplatts
- (134088) Brettperkins
- (134112) Jeremyralph
- (170906) Coluche
- (170910) Brandonsanderson