(17681) Tweedledum Inner Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 6 January 1997 by T. Urata at Oohira.
Tweedledum was one of the twins in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. When Alice meets him, he is standing under a tree with his arm round his brother's neck. Like his twin Tweedledee, he gives his name to a minor planet of Hungaria type. The citation was prepared by D. J. Asher.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 3, #11, 5), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Tweedledum is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Tweedledum is 1.77 au from the Sun and 1.64 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 17681 |
| Provisional designation | 1997 AQ6 |
| Orbit class | Inner Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 2.43 km (#16,404 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.520 |
| Rotation period | 75.2 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.42 |
| Orbital period | 2.47 years |
| Semi-major axis | 1.83 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 1.77 – 1.88 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0297 |
| Inclination | 24.4° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 0.785 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Lewis
- (6042) Cheshirecat
- (6916) Lewispearce
- (8889) Mockturtle
- (9387) Tweedledee
- (17472) Dinah
- (17942) Whiterabbit
- (37609) LaVelle
- (81790) Lewislove
- (213629) Binford
- (270553) Loureed
- (399979) Lewseaman
- (508440) Lewishamilton
All asteroids named after someone called Lewis
Also discovered on 6 January 1997
- (7618) Gotoyukichi
- (8930) Kubota
- (8931) Hirokimatsuo
- (8932) Nagatomo
- (8933) Kurobe
- (9107) Narukospa
- (18553) Kinkakuji
- (23638) Nagano