(9249) Yen Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 24 September 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
Named in honor of Chen-wan L. Yen, a senior analyst within the Mission and Systems Architecture Section of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Chen-wan has done seminal work in the development and application of optimization techniques to interplanetary trajectories. Using multiple-impulse and gravity-assist techniques, her optimized interplanetary trajectories have allowed significant payloads to be launched within current launch vehicle capabilities. Her work is evident in the interplanetary trajectories designed for the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Magellan mission to Venus, the Cassini mission to Saturn, and the Stardust mission to return a dust sample from comet 81P/Wild 2.Naming citation (19990402/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
👶 Yen as a baby name🐶 Yen as a dog name
Where Yen is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Yen is 2.31 au from the Sun and 1.36 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 9249 |
| Provisional designation | 4606 P-L |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 2.96 km (#15,331 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.321 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.77 |
| Orbital period | 3.47 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.29 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.11 – 2.48 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0820 |
| Inclination | 2.05° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.09 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