1165 Imprinetta, provisional designation , is a carbonaceous Meliboean
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
from the outer regions of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...
, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 24 April 1930 by Dutch astronomer
Hendrik van Gent
Hendrik van Gent (14 September 1899, Pernis – March 29, 1947, Amsterdam)''Album studiosorum Academiæ lugduno-batavæ MDCCCLXXV-MCMXXV'', A. W. Sijthoff, 1925, p. 376 was a Dutch astronomer.
He moved to South Africa in 1928 in order to o ...
at the
Union Observatory
Union Observatory, also known as Transvaal Observatory, Republic Observatory and Johannesburg Observatory ( 078), is a defunct astronomical observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa that operated from 1903 to 1971. It is located on Observatory R ...
in Johannesburg, South Africa. The asteroid was named after Imprinetta Gent, wife of the discoverer.
Orbit and classification
''Imprinetta'' is a member of the Meliboea family, a smaller
asteroid family
An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. An ...
of carbonaceous outer-belt asteroids with a few hundred members, named after 137 Meliboea.
This asteroid orbits the Sun in the