1940 Whipple
1940 Whipple is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 2 February 1975, by the Harvard College Observatory at its George R. Agassiz Station near Harvard, Massachusetts, in the United States, and named after astronomer Fred Whipple.
Classification and orbit
Whipple orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.9–3.3 AU once every 5 years and 4 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. The first used observation was made at Goethe Link Observatory in 1962, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 13 years prior to its discovery observation.Naming
This minor planet was named after American astronomer Fred Lawrence Whipple, author of the icy conglomerate model, also known as the dirty snowball hypothesis.Whipple worked at the Harvard College Observatory for over 70 years and was the director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory where he developed new methods imaging meteors. He was also president of several commissions at the International Astronomical Union and on NASA's panel for missions to small Solar System bodies. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 June 1975.