(10951) Spessart Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 24 September 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
Geologically, the Spessart is part of the mountains east of the Rhine, which extend from Basel in the south to Frankfurt in the north. It is a small chain of mountains surrounded by the river Main on three sides.Naming citation (20030501/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Spessart is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Spessart is 3.13 au from the Sun and 3.16 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 10951 |
| Provisional designation | 4050 P-L |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 6.28 km (#8,533 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.178 |
| Rotation period | 4.54 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 13.86 |
| Orbital period | 5.16 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.99 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.80 – 3.17 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0618 |
| Inclination | 9.62° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.83 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also discovered on 24 September 1960
- (1743) Schmidt
- (1744) Harriet
- (1776) Kuiper
- (1777) Gehrels
- (1795) Woltjer
- (1808) Bellerophon
- (1809) Prometheus
- (1810) Epimetheus
- (1811) Bruwer
- (1812) Gilgamesh
- (1846) Bengt
- (1868) Thersites