6980 Kyusakamoto, provisional designation , is a stony Koronis
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
from the outer region of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Japanese astronomers
Kin Endate
is a Japanese amateur astronomer who has discovered hundreds of asteroids, most of them in collaboration with Kazuro Watanabe, placing him among the most prolific discoverers of minor planets.
Career in astronomy
Kin Endate was born in Iwa ...
and
Kazuro Watanabe
is a Japanese amateur astronomer and prolific discoverer of minor planets. He was born in Hokkaidō, Japan and is a member of the ''Astronomical Society of Japan'' as well as of the ''Oriental Astronomical Association''.
Through publications ...
at
Kitami Observatory
Kitami Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the Kitami-Abashiri Region Cultural Centre in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. Its observatory code is 400. It is 0.72344 Earth radii from the rotation axis and +0.68811 Earth radii from the equatorial ...
on 16 September 1993. The asteroid was named after Japanese singer
Kyu Sakamoto
was a Japanese singer and actor.
He was best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō" (known as "Sukiyaki" in English-speaking markets), which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies. It reached number ...
.
Orbit and classification
''Kyusakamoto'' is a member of the
Koronis family ]
The Koronis or Koronian family (), also known as the Lacrimosa family, is a very large asteroid family of S-type asteroid, stony asteroids, located in the Kirkwood gap, outer region of the asteroid belt. They are thought to have been formed at le ...
, which is named after 158 Koronis and consists of about 300 known bodies with nearly ecliptical orbits. It orbits the Sun in the