Discovery date 15 January 1996 Observation arc 12932 days (35.41 yr) Orbits Sun MPC designation 7794 | Alternative names 1996 AD4 Discovered 15 January 1996 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Discovered by U. Munari and M. Tombelli Aphelion 2.6423924 AU (395.29628 Gm) Perihelion 1.9604680 AU (293.28184 Gm) Discovery site Cima Ekar Observing Station Discoverers Maura Tombelli, Ulisse Munari People also search for Sun, (29547) 1998 BA34 | ||
7794 Sanvito (1996 AD4) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on January 15, 1996 by Ulisse Munari and Maura Tombelli at the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory at Cima Ekar ridge near Asiago, Italy. It was named in honor of Roberto di San Vito, an Italian amateur astronomer. San Vito is supporting a new observatory in Montelupo that will bear his name, the San Vito Observatory.
In the "Sources" section of the science fiction novel 3001: The Final Odyssey, the author, Arthur C. Clarke, jokingly refers to a prediction he made in the first book of the series, 2001: A Space Odyssey (published in 1968), of an Asteroid 7794 being discovered by a "lunar observatory" in 1997. This asteroid had a projectile fired at it by the spaceship Discovery as it passed by on its way to Saturn so that instruments aboard the Discovery might analyze the asteroid's composition.