7336 Saunders

7336 Saunders, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Amor group, approximately 0.5 kilometers in diameter.
The asteroid was discovered on 6 September 1989, by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory in California, United States. It was named for JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders.
Orbit and classification.
"Saunders" orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.2–3.4 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,278 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.48 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic.
A first precovery was taken at the Australian Siding Spring Observatory in 1982, extending the body's observation arc by 7 years prior to its official discovery at Palomar. It has a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of , which corresponds to 74.3 lunar distances.
Physical characteristics.
In the SMASS classification, "Saunders" is a Sq-type, which transitions from the common S-type to the Q-type asteroids. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and derives a diameter of 467 meters, based on an absolute magnitude of 19.02.
Lightcurve.
In October 1989, the first photometric observations of "Saunders" were made with the ESO 1-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile. It gave a rotation period of 6 hours with a brightness variation of 0.3 magnitude (). Another rotational lightcurve was obtained by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in August 2003, giving a period of and an amplitude of 0.2 magnitude ().
Naming.
This minor planet was named in honor of JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders (born 1940), director of the RPIF and head scientist of the "Solar System Exploration Office". He worked on the Mars Surveyor 2001/03 program and on the Magellan spacecraft, that visited and mapped Venus in 1990. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 26 July 2000 ().
External links.
 