(10437) van der Kruit Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 24 September 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
Piet van der Kruit (b. 1944), a professor of astronomy at Groningen, works mainly on the structure of galaxies, using the radio synthesis telescope at Westerbork. Among his early successes were the radio-continuum maps of M51. The citation was prepared by U. Schwarz.Naming citation (20010705/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where van der Kruit is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: van der Kruit is 2.29 au from the Sun and 1.54 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 10437 |
| Provisional designation | 6085 P-L |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 2.73 km (#15,801 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.150 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 15.29 |
| Orbital period | 3.64 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.37 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 1.83 – 2.90 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.225 |
| Inclination | 1.78° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 0.821 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also discovered on 24 September 1960
- (1743) Schmidt
- (1744) Harriet
- (1776) Kuiper
- (1777) Gehrels
- (1795) Woltjer
- (1808) Bellerophon
- (1809) Prometheus
- (1810) Epimetheus
- (1811) Bruwer
- (1812) Gilgamesh
- (1846) Bengt
- (1868) Thersites