52266 Van Flandern

52266 Van Flandern (provisional designation: 1986 AD) is a main-belt minor planet. It was discovered by Carolyn S. Shoemaker and Eugene Merle Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, on January 10, 1986. The asteroid remained unnamed until 2009, when this citation was entered:

Tom Van Flandern (1940-2009) predicted and comprehensively analyzed lunar occultations at the U.S. Naval Observatory in the 1970s. In 1979 he published pioneering papers on the dynamics of binary minor planets. He helped improve GPS accuracies and established Meta Research to support alternative cosmological ideas.^[1]

See also

• List of minor planets: 52001–53000
• Tom Van Flandern

External links

• 52266 Van Flandern at the JPL Small-Body Database

• Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters