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Discovery and designation
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| Discovered by | Tamara Smirnova |
| Discovery site | Nauchnyj |
| Discovery date | November 2, 1975 |
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Designations
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| MPC designation | 2578 |
| Alternate name(s) | 1975 VW3, 1952 HG2, 1980 TA1 |
| Minor planet category |
Main belt |
| Epoch July 23, 2010 | |
| Aphelion | 3.2885775 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.7117843 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 3.0001809 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.0961264 |
| Orbital period | 1898.102 days |
| Mean anomaly | 242.24793° |
| Inclination | 10.57784° |
| Longitude of ascending node | 55.75819° |
| Argument of perihelion | 338.44636° |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 11.4 |
2578 Saint-Exupéry is a small main belt asteroid, which was discovered by Tamara M. Smirnova on November 2, 1975. It is named after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French aviator and writer. The name is appropriate, as Saint-Exupéry's best-known character, The Little Prince, lives on an asteroid.
In the book, the little prince's asteroid also has a unique code: B612. According to present conventions 2578 Saint-Exupéry's provisional designation was 1975 VW3, which is not a match. However, there is another asteroid called 46610 Bésixdouze, which is French for "B-six-twelve" (B612 in hexadecimal notation equals 46610).
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