Planet Biyo

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Planet Biyo is a minor planet named after a Filipino teacher, Dr. Josette Biyo, who was the first Asian winner of the Intel Excellence in Teaching Award. It is listed as planet 13241 by the International Astronomical Union.


Planet 13241, or 13241 Biyo, was discovered on 22 May 1998 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Team. Under the definition of the International Astronomical Union, it is an asteroid or minor planet, and is located in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is between three to nine kilometers in diameter. Its semi-major axis falls 2.2731250 astronomical units away from the center of the sun, and its perihelion distance (or the body's distance from the sun at its closest approach) fall at 2.1269244 AU.

The axis of 13241 Biyo has an inclination of 7.30417 degrees, and its mean anomaly falls at 285.18521 degrees. It completes one orbital rotation roughly every 1251 days, or 3.43 years, at 0.28758689 degrees per day.

13241 Biyo has been observed 549 times since it was first seen in 1975. It was 1.979 AU or 29,605,418 kilometers from Earth (2.397 AU or 35,858,609 kilometers from the sun) when it was last observed on 17 November 2009.

Little is known about 13241 Biyo because of its dimunitive size and the dense concentration of asteroids in its vicinity..

13241 Biyo is only one of a number of asteroids named after Filipinos. Others include: 6282 Edwelda, named after Edwin L. Aguirre and Imelda B. Joson; 11697 Estrella, named after Allan Noriel Astrella; 12088 Macalintal, named after Jeric Valles Macalintal; 12522 Rara, named after Prem Vilas Fortran Rara; 4866 Badillo, named after Victor L. Badillo; and 6636 Kintanar, named after Roman Lucero Kintanar.


(Accessed 28 June 2010)