22740 Rayleigh
Encyclopedia
22740 Rayleigh is an outer main-belt asteroid
discovered on September 20, 1998 by Eric Walter Elst
at the European Southern Observatory
. It is one of very few asteroids located in the 2 : 1 mean motion resonance
with Jupiter
.
The asteroid was named in honour of the English physicist John William Rayleigh (1842–1919).
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
discovered on September 20, 1998 by Eric Walter Elst
Eric Walter Elst
Eric Walter Elst is a Belgian astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, with over 3,000 discovered so far ....
at the European Southern Observatory
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
. It is one of very few asteroids located in the 2 : 1 mean motion resonance
Orbital resonance
In celestial mechanics, an orbital resonance occurs when two orbiting bodies exert a regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually due to their orbital periods being related by a ratio of two small integers. Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of...
with Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
.
The asteroid was named in honour of the English physicist John William Rayleigh (1842–1919).