Badlands Observatory Asteroid Named for Town of Quinn
We cherish our home in Quinn, South Dakota. How fitting, in our opinion, that a heavenly rock would be named Quinn in honor of the town!
We are pleased to announce that the International Astronomical Union has accepted the name Quinn for Asteroid 107561. As the discoverer, Ron Dyvig had the privilege of recommending the name. Badlands Observatory received notification on April 11, 2022 that the name was accepted. Ron presented a plaque to the Board of Directors of the Town of Quinn on June 6, 2022 commemorating the official naming and thanked the town for its support.
The asteroid was discovered at Badlands Observatory on February 28, 2001 using the 26” Newtonian Reflector Telescope that Ron designed and fabricated. He received discovery credit on 25 main belt asteroids over ten years of research as a participant in NASA’s Spaceguard Survey which collected data on the orbital elements of asteroids with potential Earth crossing orbits. The program was established to catalogue and map asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter in an effort to identify those that could be hazardous.
The official citation notes that: “Quinn, South Dakota, USA, was established in 1907 and named after Michael Quinn, a pioneering rancher and bullwacker. Badlands Observatory, where this asteroid was discovered, is located within the former Quinn Community Hospital. The city, and the West River Electric Association, installed full-cutoff light fixtures in support of the observatory.”
Photometric measurements associated with Asteroid 107561 Quinn indicate that it is between 940 and 3000 meters or .6 to1.9 miles in diameter. Based on its orbital period of 3.86 years, it has orbited the sun approximately 5.4 times since its discovery. Its distance from Earth varies with its orbit between approximately 100 million miles and 350 million miles. When discovered, it was approximately 123 million miles away and it is currently approximately 311 million miles away. The asteroid is located safely within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and its orbit is not Earth crossing.
Asteroid 107561 Quinn joins 26715 South Dakota and 123794 Deadwood as asteroids discovered at Badlands Observatory that are named for the State and its cities and towns.
