8661 Ratzinger, provisional designation , is an Eoan asteroid 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, c ...
, approximately 13.4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 14 October 1990, by German astronomers
Lutz Schmadel
Lutz Dieter Schmadel (2 July 1942, in Berlin – 21 October 2016) was a German astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, who worked at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ARI) of the University of Heidelberg.
His special interest was t ...
Karl Schwarzschild Observatory
The Karl Schwarzschild Observatory (german: Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium) is a German astronomical observatory in Tautenburg near Jena, Thuringia.
It was founded in 1960 as an affiliated institute of the former German Academy of Sciences at ...
in Tautenburg, eastern Germany. The asteroid was named after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
.
Orbit and classification
''Ratzinger'' is a member of the
Eos family The Eos family (''adj. Eoan'' ; ) is a very large asteroid family located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. The family of K-type asteroids is believed to have formed as a result of an ancient catastrophic collision. The family's parent body ...