(7342) Uchinoura Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 23 March 1992 by Endate, K., Watanabe, K. at Kitami.
Named for the town in southern Kyushu where the Kagoshima Space Center of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) is located. A small fishing village, the town entered the limelight in 1962, when it was selected as the launching site for ISAS (now ISAS Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture). ISAS satellites are launched toward the Pacific Ocean from a plateau in the southeastern part of the town. The facilities are getting larger as the rockets also grow in size. The usual population of the town is about 10~000, but at the time of a launch staff and reporters typically cause a 20-percent increase.Naming citation (19990402/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Uchinoura is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Uchinoura is 2.53 au from the Sun and 2.41 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 7342 |
| Provisional designation | 1992 FB1 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 5.97 km (#8,974 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.274 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 13.16 |
| Orbital period | 4.43 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.70 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.42 – 2.98 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.103 |
| Inclination | 13.9° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.43 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also discovered on 23 March 1992
- (5692) Shirao
- (6274) Taizaburo
- (6330) Koen
- (6565) Reiji
- (6656) Yokota
- (6734) Benzenberg
- (6832) Kawabata
- (7293) Kazuyuki
- (7773) Kyokuchiken
- (9362) Miyajima
- (14436) Morishita
- (17501) Tetsuro