(9891) Stephensmith Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 15 December 1995 by T. Kobayashi at Oizumi.
Stephen Smith published The Shallow Sky Bulletin from 1986 to 2000. He published cometary ephemerides in the SSB and distributed them promptly for newly-discovered comets.Naming citation (20060413/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Stephensmith is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Stephensmith is 2.28 au from the Sun and 3.22 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 9891 |
| Provisional designation | 1995 XN1 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 7.68 km (#6,904 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.241 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 12.93 |
| Orbital period | 4.17 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.59 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.24 – 2.94 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.135 |
| Inclination | 14.1° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.23 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Stephen
- (5190) Fry
- (5191) Paddack
- (5292) Mackwell
- (5657) Groombridge
- (7336) Saunders
- (7672) Hawking
- (8373) Stephengould
- (9768) Stephenmaran
- (10287) Smale
- (10315) Brewster
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- (16104) Stesullivan
All asteroids named after someone called Stephen