The US Minor Planet Center has announced the new name for the asteroid formerly known as 2009 RC26 to be (264045) Heinerklinkrad.

Asteroid Heinerklinkrad (seen in three insets in this composite image). Credit: ESA/TOTAS/M. Busch/R. Kresken/D. Pazos

Asteroid Heinerklinkrad (seen in three insets in this composite image). Credit: ESA/TOTAS/M. Busch/R. Kresken/D. Pazos

The asteroid, several kilometres across, was discovered on 13 September 2009 by Matthias Busch and Rainer Kresken using ESA’s Optical Ground Station on Tenerife, Spain. The citation reads:

Heiner Klinkrad (b. 1953) is a German engineer, academic and former head of the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office. One of Europe’s leading debris experts, he has played a crucial role in defining mitigation guidelines now adopted by numerous space agencies.

To get the object’s ephemerides:

  1. Access https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html
  2. Enter: (264045) Heinerklinkrad in the main input frame
  3. Select your desired output data
  4. Click ‘Get Ephemerides’

Example

Display all designations for this object / Show naming citation / # of variant orbits available = 3
Epoch 2016 July 31.0 TT = JDT 2457600.5                 MPC
M  27.50784              (2000.0)            P               Q
n   0.18272703     Peri.  259.31249     -0.22863972     -0.96946826             T = 2457449.95938 JDT
a   3.0756307      Node   204.46017     +0.95574926     -0.20622444             q =     2.6810595
e   0.1282895      Incl.   12.35976     +0.18511411     -0.13267546
P   5.39           H   15.5           G   0.15           U   0
From 177 observations at 9 oppositions, 1996-2016, mean residual 0".41.

More information

Space Situational Awareness – Near Earth Objects
Space Debris at ESA
MPC – citation