Discovery date 24 September 1960 Alternative names 3042 P–L · 1981 ER3 Observation arc 53.69 yr (19609 days) Orbits Sun | MPC designation 2940 Bacon Minor planet category main-belt Discovered 24 September 1960 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
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2940 Bacon, also designated 3042 P–L, is an asteroid from the asteroid belt that was discovered on September 24, 1960 by Cornelis van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–3.4 AU once every 4 years and 8 months (1,696 days). The orbit is rather eccentric (0.24).
The designation P–L stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld at Leiden Observatory. The trio are credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries.
It was named in honour of English scholar Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626). He has been called the father of empiricism and his works established and popularized the scientific method.