(9678) van der Meer Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 24 September 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
Working together with his colleague C. Rubbia, Dutch physicist Simon van der Meer (b. 1925) received the 1984 Nobel Prize in physics for their decisive contributions to the large project that led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction. The name was suggested by W. A. Fröger.Naming citation (20001111/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where van der Meer is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: van der Meer is 2.73 au from the Sun and 3.71 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 9678 |
| Provisional designation | 2584 P-L |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 16.01 |
| Orbital period | 4.21 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.61 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.06 – 3.16 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.212 |
| Inclination | 2.42° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.04 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