(17612) Whiteknight Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 20 October 1995 by Sato, N., Urata, T. at Chichibu.
The White Knight is one of the chess pieces that make up the characters in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. He often falls off his horse. He and the Red Knight fight to decide whose prisoner Alice shall be.Naming citation (WGSBN Bull. 3, #11, 6), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Whiteknight is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Whiteknight is 3.09 au from the Sun and 3.28 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 17612 |
| Provisional designation | 1995 UW6 |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 4.86 km (#10,900 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.206 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.2 |
| Orbital period | 5.40 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.08 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 3.05 – 3.11 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0110 |
| Inclination | 8.42° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 2.05 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also discovered on 20 October 1995
- (6747) Ozegahara
- (6748) Bratton
- (7673) Inohara
- (9212) Kanamaru
- (11981) Boncompagni
- (11984) Manet
- (15846) Billfyfe
- (16715) Trettenero
- (18469) Hakodate
- (48643) Allen-Beach
- (52480) Enzomora
- (65784) Naderayama