(9574) Taku Main-belt Asteroid

Discovered on 5 December 1988 by T. Nakamura at Kiso.

Named in memory of Hiroshi Nakamura (1891-1974), Japanese medical biochemist and researcher of old maps. He was often called Taku, since the Chinese character representing his first name can also be pronounced as Taku. He is well-known in the community of historical cartography as twice the winner of the Imago Mundi prize, awarded by the authoritative international journal on old maps. Taku was a long-time member of the editorial board of this journal. He wrote several important books and papers on far-east Asian maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He showed that, contrary to Western understanding, European sea charts and maps of far-east Asia then being made were largely influenced by the knowledge of contemporary Japanese and Chinese sailors.Naming citation (19990402/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL

👶 Taku as a baby name

Where Taku is today

Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Taku is 2.01 au from the Sun and 2.92 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.

Facts

Number	9574
Provisional designation	1988 XB5
Orbit class	Main-belt Asteroid
Diameter	4.25 km (#12,148 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size)
Albedo	0.295
Absolute magnitude (H)	14.16
Orbital period	3.36 years
Semi-major axis	2.25 au
Perihelion – aphelion	2.01 – 2.48 au
Eccentricity	0.104
Inclination	4.79°
Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID)	1.03 au

Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.

Also named after someone called Hiroshi

All asteroids named after someone called Hiroshi

Also discovered on 5 December 1988

More named asteroids discovered by T. Nakamura

← (9573) Matsumotomas · (9576) van der Weyden →