(74824) Tarter Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 12 October 1999 by C. W. Juels at Fountain Hills.
Jill C. Tarter (b. 1944) searches for extra-terrestrial intelligence at the SETI Institute using radio telescopes while holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI. Her career inspired Carl Sagan to write Contact. She has also encouraged thousands to assist SETI discovery using their home computers.Naming citation (20050919/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Tarter is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Tarter is 2.69 au from the Sun and 3.55 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 74824 |
| Provisional designation | 1999 TJ16 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 4.08 km (#12,557 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0820 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 15.89 |
| Orbital period | 3.67 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.38 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 1.95 – 2.81 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.181 |
| Inclination | 3.63° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 0.956 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
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