(8990) Compassion

(8990) Compassion is an asteroid that is part of the asteroid belt and was discovered by the Kleť Observatory team from the observatory of the same name, near České Budějovice, Czech Republic, on February 19 from 1980.

Designation and name

Compassion was originally designated as 1980 DN. Later, in 2001, the Committee on the Nomenclature for Minor Bodies named the asteroid "Compassion" in memory of the compassion shown by the people towards the friends and relatives of the victims of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York.

Orbital characteristics

Compassion is located at an average distance from the Sun of 3,158 AU, being able to move away up to 3,454 AU and approach up to 2,862 AU. Its orbital inclination is 8.085 degrees and eccentricity 0.09374. It takes 2050 days to complete one orbit around the Sun. Compassion's movement on the stellar background is 0.1756 degrees per day.

Physical characteristics

The absolute magnitude of Compassion is 12.6.