(6211) Tsubame Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 19 February 1991 by Inoda, S., Urata, T. at Karasuyama.
Tsubame, Japanese for a swallow, is the nickname of an express train that was a star of Japan's rail transportation system during the 1950s. In 1954 Tsubame achieved the Japanese record of 129 km per hour for steam locomotion. In the 1930s an earlier Tsubame did the Tokyo-Kobe run in 8 1/2 hours.Naming citation (19991123/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Tsubame is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Tsubame is 2.96 au from the Sun and 2.59 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 6211 |
| Provisional designation | 1991 DO |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 5.75 km (#9,290 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.444 |
| Rotation period | 2.70 hours |
| Spectral type | Sr |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 13.26 |
| Orbital period | 4.57 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.76 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.50 – 3.01 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0941 |
| Inclination | 8.54° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.50 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.